Total Drama: Battle of the Generations
by StayOuttaMyShed
Summary: After rebuilding the Jumbo Jet, Chris is ready for another tour around the world, this time with competitors from all three generations! Can Scott earn his team's trust? Will Shawn and Jasmine dominate the competition? And the Drama Brothers are back together? It's an all out battle for supremacy!
1. A Cool Reunion part 1

There was a sharp crackle of thunder as a bolt of lightning struck the earth below. High atop a long forgotten abandoned hill in the middle of Ontario stood a castle. Within its walls were two figures, one a hulking man shrouded by a cloak, standing next to a lever. The other figure was scrawnier, also wearing a cloak and disguised by the shadows. Cackling to himself, he approached a massive slab in the middle of the room. The room was lined with various torches to illuminate the area. Throughout were many pieces of equipment and batteries, most attached to the slab the figure looked over proudly. What was on the slab could not be seen, as it was covered by a very large sheet, though it was certainly massive. The figure continued to laugh sadistically as the thunderstorm intensified.

"The time has come for you to finally live once again," he told whatever was on the slab, oozing with excitement as he grinned wickedly. Turning to his companion near the lever, he pointed dramatically to the heavens, where a hole was in the ceiling large enough to accommodate the slab. "Now!"

Nodding silently, the larger figure slowly flipped the switch. The machines throughout the room beeped and booped to life, mixing with the sounds of the storm to fill the room with noise. As the lights from the devices flickered, the slab in the center of the room slowly began to rise, supported by heavy chains at each corner. As the slab continued to rise, so too did the laughter of the figure as he watched the ascension with the utmost glee. When the slab had reached the top of its climb, it lied prone to the mercy of the storm raging above. Suddenly, a bolt of lightning struck whatever was beneath the cover, causing the machines in the room to surge with power. Another bolt struck, and the devices would intensify even more. After the third bolt had struck, the figure held his hands up joyously, filled with euphoric glee.

"It's alive! It's alive! It's aliiiiiiiiiive!"

"Chris, this is a lot of got dang fanfare over a stupid airplane," the other figure in the room suddenly cut off, removing the hood of the cloak to reveal himself as a large, bald, muscular black man sporting some sweet facial hair. Indeed, it was the one and only Chef Hatchet. Annoyed at his counterpart's antics, he flipped the lever once again, and the slab began to descend.

"Uh, it's not an airplane, Chef," the first figure corrected, their hood finally falling off to reveal a handsome Caucasian man with stubble and windblown hair. Reality TV's most infamous host, Chris McLean, in the flesh. The slab had finished his descent and Chris eagerly took hold of the cover, yanking it off of whatever was beneath. "It's a jet!"

Indeed with the cover off, the massive figure underneath was revealed to be a jet. But not just any everyday ordinary jet. No, this was THE Total Dram Jumbo Jet. Last seen in Total Drama World Tour before being blown up to kingdom come by Sierra, it was now perfectly rebuilt and in working condition. At least, as good a condition as it was for World Tour. That being, not very good condition at all and with questionable safety. But by damn, it was rebuilt all the same.

"Whatever, man." Chef threw his cloak over his shoulder, walking over to join the host in looking over the colossal airliner. "Did the lightning even do anything? I mean really, why couldn't we just rebuild the darn thing and leave it at that?" He threw his hands up, rolling his eyes. "But nooo, we gotta drag it to a gosh darn castle and get all Dracula on the stupid thing."

"First of all, that's the wrong story," Chris corrected, still choosing to leave the cloak on for dramatic effect. "And yes, it was very much necessary. A return this great deserves a grand entrance." Suddenly, he turned away from Chef and towards the camera, flashing a bright grin as it panned out to get him, Chef, and the jet all in shot. "It's time for another World Tour, baby! All Stars part two! And it's coming at you right now!"

The host posed dramatically, motioning at the Jumbo Jet as a crack of lightning emphasized the segway. Chef, meanwhile, simply groaned, rolling his eyes as the show finally went to intro.

 ***** Opening Theme *****

 ***** Outside an airport somewhere in Toronto *****

Now cloak free and in his classic normal attire he had worn for all previous seasons he had hosted the show, Chris walked into frame. While he tried to always have his cheeky grin, he had a special sort of smile that only came with the excitement of a fresh new season. That meant new drama. New grueling challenges. New pain and suffering. All some of the host's favorite things.

He stood outside the entrance of an airport, standing in the middle of a road meant for shuttles to load and unload passengers. Eager to get into it, Chris wasted no time. "Long time no see! No, your eyes don't deceive you. It's really me, your favorite loving reality show host with the most! And this is the start of the newest season of Total Drama!"

Taking a quick pause to let it sink in, Chris motioned off to the side where a shuttle bus strolled in from off screen, coming to a halt next to the host. "We're bringing back the World Tour! We're bringing back All Stars! But this time it's gonna be bigger. It's gonna be better. It's gonna be totally freaking awesome!" Smiling as the doors to the shuttle squeaked open, Chris approached the door. "So how about we start out by seeing who's joining us this season. First up, from Total Drama Island, welcome back Izzy and DJ!"

First off of the bus was a flash of green and orange. The red headed girl landed into a cartwheel, spinning up to the host as she exuded her limitless energy. Making a simple, normal entrance was something out of the question for her as she grinned wildly and waved for the camera. On the other end, behind her came a large, muscular, yet kind looking man, stepping out of the bus carefully. He had known better as to try and depart the bus before her, knowing fully well that it likely would have led to him being sent tumbling down the shuttle's stairs due to her pushing her way out from behind. The boy of Jamaican-Canadian decent gave the camera a warm smile, but was quickly thrown off guard as the girl emerged from behind and jumped on to his back spontaneously.

"Woohoo!" She cheered loudly, not considering how her scream was right next to the boy's ear. "We're finally back! Can you believe it, Deej?"

DJ grimaced at the loud noise that was suddenly assaulting his eardrum, but he was too kind to chastise her, knowing her well enough to realize she wasn't intentionally meaning harm. This was just how she was. "Yeah, it's pretty cool, Izzy. Feels like ages since last time."

As Izzy jumped off of her fellow cast mate's back, Chris wouldn't miss a beat as they took their place next to him. The introductions continued on. "The ever sassy Leshawna, and always long winded Harold!"

"I'll have you know that many people find my trivia both interesting and mentally stimulating," an offended nasally voice answered from within the bus before the source stepped out. A scrawny red headed nerd adjusted his glasses, leveling a glare the host's way. "You clearly just don't know how to appreciate expanding your knowledge, gosh!"

"You tell em, honey!" The speaker with the much louder voice was out next, a curvy sister that radiated sass and confidence. She patted the nerd on the back while he grinned and his cheeks blushed red. "Only things McLean knows about in the noggin of his is beauty products and how to torture people a third his age."

Chris' eye twitched a bit, but he would not let his trademark grin falter so soon on the first day of a new season. "Yes, you all should be quite familiar with the later. Care to volunteer as an early reminder, Leshawna?"

The soul sister rolled her eyes, paying him no mind as she turned back to the nerd. "Don't let Chris' salty behind get ya down, Harold. You keep being you."

Harold nodded in understanding, still blushing due to not having seen Leshawna in so long. "But of course, m'lady. He's just jealous of my wicked skills. What else is new?"

Ignoring Chris, Harold and Leshawna gladly went to chatting up DJ and Izzy. Annoyed, but not about to let the young adults sense it, Chris kept the ball rolling. "Up next, we have a former finalist, farm girl Beth! As well as lover boy turned wackjob, Trent."

First of the pair off of the bus was the male of the duo. Normally with a cool, calm, and collected demeanor about him, the musician exited the bus with guitar case in hand, his expression showing disgruntlement. "Gee, thanks for the killer introduction, Chris. I totally appreciate the constant reminders of something that only happened in one season."

"Says someone who was only in two seasons," Chris shot back without missing a beat, still grinning while Trent's expression soured further. His attitude was calmed, though, when he was approached by a short bespectacled girl with an odd sense of fashion.

"Hey, there's nothing wrong with having only been on two seasons," she pointed out, patting Trent on the back reassuringly. She smiled, motioning at their luggage. "Plus now we're about to be on a third, right?"

Indeed, Trent's attitude was helped immensely by her kind comforting. He chuckled, nodding in agreement. "Fair point, Beth, fair point."

The two approached the growing crowd of familiar contestants, Trent immediately offering a high five to Harold after spotting his former band-mate. Beth exchanged a hug with Izzy, though quickly found out it was more than she bargained for when the red head picked her up and squeezed tight.

"And last but certainly not least from this lot," Chris announced. "Fan favorite geek Cody, and everyone's favorite uptight CIT, Courtney!"

Letting out a small cheer as he jumped out of the shuttle, another scrawny boy, though this one with brown hair instead of red and a gap in his teeth instead of glasses, raised his fists to the air. "It's good to be back! I was starting to think it was never going to happen again."

He rushed off immediately to join Harold and Trent, both giving a greeting of "Codemeister!" as he approached and shooting the nerdling finger pistols. As Cody started to greet old friends, the aforementioned final member of the group exited the bus. An attractive Hispanic girl dressed professionally and glowing with confidence, she looked on with a mix of emotions as she surveyed the cast of former players she hadn't seen in quite some time.

"Hey, guys," Courtney greeted, giving a small wave as her fellow veterans looked her way. "Long time no see."

Some of the fellow TDI alum weren't too sure how to react to Courtney's arrival. Harold rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, recalling their storied history of not exactly liking one another. Beth similarly looked away and tapped her fingers together, remembering the times they had butted heads during her second season. DJ was the one to eventually break the silence, offering a kind grin and wave back.

"Yeah, it's been way too long," DJ greeted, looking around at everyone. "It cool seeing y'all again. We should really start doing reunions or something every once and a while."

The mood lighthearted and fun, Courtney smiled and entered the chit chat as the eight former TDI competitors began conversing together. They talked about what they had been up to, and reminisced on the old times from past seasons. It was a feeling of camaraderie and friendliness that, quite frankly, made Chris feel sick to his stomach.

" _No worries,"_ he thought to himself. " _They'll be at each other's throats before they know it."_

Clearing his throat loudly, the host got the attention of the eight young adults, some looking annoyed at the interruption to the conversation. Clapping his hands together, he looked them over with the grin they had long since grown to hate. "Now then, let me be the first to welcome you guys back to Total Drama. For some of you, it's been quite sometime since we last saw you in action."

"Yeah, uh, not to butt in or anything," Cody said suddenly, butting in anyway. "But isn't eight people kinda small for a full season?"

Normally Chris would have enjoyed this opportunity to lambaste the geek for interrupting him so rudely, but they were on a schedule that he didn't want running late. "Well, Cody, the response to that is quite simple. This is only the first group of victims being brought back into the fray this season." He looked off to the side, beaming as he saw a second shuttle approaching. The first had departed after all contestants had exited, and this one now took its place. "And here comes the next group now!"

Once the bus had halted to a stop, the fumes from the exhaust caused the eight contestants already present to cough and hack. The door creaked open once more. The host rubbed his hands together in anticipation.

"Now this second group of players, for the most part, might not be quite as high profile as you lot," Chris introduced, getting looks of intrigue and confusion. "But that just means they'll be all the more thirsty to prove themselves! Up first, the suffocating Jersey girl Anne Maria, and the pants wetting private, Brick!"

As soon as the introduction was done, the first of the bus' inhabitants practically jogged down the steps, standing up straight and putting his right arm up in a salute. With a buzz cut, army boots, and dog tags, he was unmistakably an army cadet of some sort. Though at this point it was possible he had advanced farther than simply cadet. "Sir, Brick McArthur returning for durty, Sir!"

His tone was loud and stern, and he stood up straight with the poise that only a military buff could accomplish. His composure was thrown off, however, when he was suddenly barraged with a cloud of hairspray that sent him into a coughing fit. While Brick clutched his throat for air, the next contestant casually scooted him aside, continuing to apply hairspray to her hard-as-brick mane.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, we all know who you is," she said dismissively, taking a break from her hairspray application to strike a pose to show off her features. "And we all know who I am!"

Indeed, she was a hard sight to miss. While she was arguably the curviest of the lot, perhaps only challenged by Leshawna, her skin was an unusual Oompa Loompa orange, a result of fake tan overuse. And her face was smothered in enough makeup to make a professional clown jealous. In the sea of Canadians, her thick New Jersey accent stuck out like a sore thumb.

"Finally, someone not so eager to be all nostalgic and goodie two shoe," Chris exclaimed, beaming with satisfaction at Anne Maria's display. "Great to have you back, Anne Maria."

"You know it," she replied, a cocky air to her as she took a place on the other side of the host. Brick had since recovered enough to be down to slight coughs and followed, taking care to stand on the side of Anne Maria where the hairspray wouldn't flow.

"Next," Chris continued, "We have the cool and silent B, and the uncool and chatty Staci!"

Chatty quickly proved to be an accurate descriptor. As if on cue, with the introduction done Staci had jumped straight into a tirade to the silent comrade behind her.

"Did you know that my great great grandfather Eustace was the one to invent buses?" She asked her counterpart, though she didn't pause for an answer, not that he would have given one. She was a rather large girl, wearing a bow on her head and speaking in a sort of German accent. "Yah, before him if a bunch of people needed to go someplace at once they'd all have to cram into a car like clowns."

The boy exiting the bus behind her listened to the tall tale, mostly because he was more of a listener than a talker. Like Staci he was rather large and chubby, though he did have an air of coolness to him. With dark skin and a large coat, he offered the camera a simple finger pistol before going back to hearing the end of Staci's story.

"And he probably got the idea from my great great great great aunt Ingrid, who invented the bench." Staci nodded in a matter of fact way that made it seem like she genuinely believed the obvious baloney that she was spewing. B simply looked at her, slightly annoyed and slightly amused. "Yah, before her-

"As riveting as this is, Staci, we do have other contestants to get through," Chris barked impatiently, signaling for her and B to join the rest of the Revenge of the Island alumni. After they had done so, the host cleared his throat. "As I was saying, next we have fan favorite weirdo Dawn, and one of our resident mutants, Dakota!"

No one really reacted to hearing Dawn's name, but hearing the host mention Dakota raised some serious eyebrows from the TDI vets that had watched the season. The last Dakota had been seen, she had been mutated into a hulking Goliath with super strength. Where would the fairness be for anyone not on a team with her?

As they pondered this, the first of the two off of the bus was instead a short, pale blonde wearing a green sweater. When exciting the bus she had her hands up in a meditative pose and her eyes closed, though she eventually opened them and waved politely to the others. "Hello, friends. I hope you're all doing well. The tea leaved predicted that today would be a rare day of calmness before great hardship, so it would be best to savor it."

Chris chuckled, the others exchanging looks of fear or nervousness as the reminder of the show's intensity dawned on them. "For once I can get behind some of the craziness she spouts. First time for everything, I suppose."

Paying the host no mind whatsoever, Dawn stepped aside for the next competitor to exit. To their surprise, what came out was not a mutated behemoth, but, well, Dakota. Or at the least, it more closely resembled Dakota before she had suffered her body changing. She no longer sported a tail, spiked teeth, or spikes protruding from her limbs. She wasn't without reminders of what once happened to her, though. Her hair was still a toxic waste colored green, spiked but shorter than it had been on Dakotazoid. Her skin had a bit of orange hue still, but it looked more normal than what Anne Maria's tan had going on. Perhaps most curiously was her change in attire. No longer did she have her former pink pants and shirt. Instead she wore a sort of jumpsuit, though it was still pink and made stylish in only the sort of way someone like Dakota could make work.

There was stunned confusion among everyone but Chris and Dawn. Anne Maria eventually broke the silence. "Yo, what happened to her? She actually looks normal... ish."

"Heh, yeah, I figured you guys might be confused," Dakota answered innocently, looking around awkwardly at all eyes being on her. At the start of Revenge of the Island this would have been exactly what she desired, but that was quite some time ago. "So to make a long story short, I was actually kind of enjoying the mutant life. But it turns out it's really really really hard to find clothes that fit someone that size. And it makes going on flights sort of impossible." She looked down at her hand, counting off on her fingers. "And riding in limos. And going through doors. And... well, you get the point."

"Fair enough," Cody replied, still a bit disappointed since he had watched Revenge of the Island and had momentarily been excited at seeing Dakotazoid in person. "But that doesn't explain how you changed back to normal."

"I sense a dark red aura dormant deep within," Dawn suddenly added, leaning in and looking at the former Fame Monger in concern.

Dakota chuckled awkwardly, taking a step away. "Yeah, I wouldn't exactly say completely normal. Daddy got together with some of his scientists friends and they worked on helping me get back to how I was. I knew Sam really liked my mutant form, but he was still supper supportive about me changing back. That's why he's the best!" She sighed dreamily, staring off into space before snapping back to realization. "Oh yeah, but anyway, those scientists were able to get me back to normal for the most part, but I still have the hair and my skin is still kinda orange."

A few of the others gave a side glance Anne Maria's way, all thinking something along the lines of " _You're not the only orange one._ "

"And uh... well even they MOSTLY got rid of Dakotazoid... I still sorta... kinda go back to it sometimes." She noticed everyone giving her concerned looks of panic, and she waved her hands dismissively. "But it only happens when I get too angry! And I change right back afterwards. That's why they made me this outfit, it doesn't rip in the off chance I accidentally become Dakotazoid."

"Wicked!" Harold's huge grin and twinkle in his eye showed just how excited he was. "So you're just like The Incred-"

Suddenly, the nerd's mouth was covered by Chris' hand, the host staring daggers down at the dork. "Finish that sentence and you're the one that has to pay copyright infringement fees."

Not in any sort of financial security to do so, Harold shut up as he was told. Since Dakota's situation seemed to have been thoroughly explained, her and Dawn joined the other season four alumni, allowing Chris to finally continue.

"As I was saying," he said. "Rounding out this group, some definite familiar faces. Former finalist and turbo jock Lightning, and our scheming dirt bag turned lovable oaf, Scott!"

At hearing the later name, Courtney's eyes went wide and she buried her head into her hands. "Oh lord."

Those that had watched Total Drama All Stars, the poor souls, turned to face Courtney after her reaction. Some looked on in sympathy, others in amusement. She heaved a sigh, raising her head just in time to see the farm boy exit the bus. Wearing his same usual white wife beater and blue jeans, he had a bored sneer when exiting the bus. That changed when he took notice that Courtney was among the crowd. Flustered, he began stammering to find something to say. It was futile, as before he could get out anything resembling words, he was pushed aside by the final shuttle occupant.

"Sha-score," he exclaimed, the origins of why he adds Sha to the start of words remaining a mystery to this day. He was of similar build to DJ. Tall, muscular, clearly athletic, and with dark skin. The difference was that while DJ radiated an air of kindness and positivity, Lightning expelled cockiness and competitiveness. Either unaware that he had shoved Scott aside or just not caring, he flexed his arms and grinned for the camera. "The Lightning is back for round three! Y'all may as well get back on the bus and leave now."

Lightning's comment probably would have come across as cooler had the bus not already departed as soon as he had exited. Unfazed, he simply went and joined the remaining season four alumni next to Chris. Scott followed behind, exchanging an awkward look at Courtney as he passed by. Chris took notice of the exchange and grinned devilishly.

Soon enough, a third and final bus appeared before the contestants. Once again the fumes seemed to nearly suffocate all there, with the exception of Anne Maria who was unsurprisingly building up an immunity to such fumes. The door popped open and for the third time Chris began his introductions.

"And finally, we have our third group of contestants. You can probably already guess what kind of group it'll be if you've been paying attention." Chris chuckled, motioning to the shuttle exit. "Let's get to it. Up first, we have the southern pageant queen Sugar, and the love struck farmer Rodney!"

First off of the third bus was an absolute mountain of a man. Struggling to even squeeze his hulking tree trunk-like arms through the door, he nearly stumbled once he finally worked his way outside. Between the freckles, gap in his teeth, and worn overalls, the farmer moniker shouldn't have come as a surprise. Getting his bearings, Rodney had intended to greet his fellow cast members, but something made him freeze.

There were a bunch of smoking hot babes here that he'd never met. Sure, as someone that tried out for the show in the first place he had watched seasons of Total Drama before, but seeing them in person was something else. Should he look at Leshawna? Perhaps Anne Maria? What about Courtney? It was too much beauty for his small mind to comprehend.

"Uh... umm... p-puppies and... daffodils and chocolate-" Rodney began to stammer, probably trying to envision what he wanted to say but unable to figure out how to speak properly. Since his gibberish made Staci and Izzy sound sane by comparison, he was thankfully cut off by the loud cheer of the next Pahkitew Island alumni.

"Yeeeeeeeee haaaaaaaw," an even thicker country accent than his called, jumping out of the bus with a toothy grin. Speaking of which, like Rodney she had a gap in her teeth, though while she sounded to be just as country as him, her oddly small pink top was more suited for the beach than a farm. Also like her fellow farmer she was large, though not with muscle like her counterpart.

"It's about gosh dern time we had another season, what took ya so long?" she barked at Chris in annoyance, fists on her hips. She didn't wait for an answer, as once she noticed Rodney next to her she scooted him along. "Well don't just stand there, Rodney, you already had yer screen time."

Chuckling at the newcomer's antics, Chris motioned for Rodney to stand behind him to start the third group of players. "Glad to see the enthusiasm, Sugar. But I have some more victims to introduce, so if you'd be so kind as to join us." Seeing the pageant queen fold her arms and narrowing her eyes in rebellion, he had to keep it going. "Not to worry, you'll have plenty of screen time to take in soon enough."

With a huff, but knowing there was nothing to be gained from holding up the show, Sugar slumped over to where Rodney stood, arms still folded. "Fine."

Satisfied, Chris motioned everyone back to watching the bus. "Moving on, here's two contestants that know each other very well. The popular, talented, and successful cheerleader Amy... and also her sister Samey, I guess."

"It's Sammy," a voice corrected, part annoyed and part hurt. Out stepped a petite blonde in, what else, a cheer leading outfit. She was frowning from Chris' remark, but her mood wasn't going to get any better when she was promptly shoved out of the way by someone who looked almost exactly like her, save for a mole Sammy did not have. And unlike her twin's more kind and timid demeanor, this one gave off the air of someone who cared for no one other than herself.

"No, he got it right the first time," she spat dismissively, giving her sister a sinister smirk. "Unless you would have preferred Sparemy."

"You can't talk to her like that!" A sudden third voice boomed from behind the meaner twin, taking Amy by surprise. Chris too, since this messed with the two at a time mojo he had tried to establish. But sure enough, out now was yet another large contestant. Though unlike Rodney and Sugar she was fairly lean, the size came from her immense height that caused her to tower over the rest. Her attire made it seem like she was ready for a safari, and she spoke with the lone Australian accent of the group.

"Uh, Jasmine, I didn't introduce you and Shawn yet," Chris pointed out, irritated at the flow being disrupted.

"Wait, did he just give me my cue?" Another new voice asked, stepping out of the shuttle suddenly. He was a scruffy looking boy, also looking dressed like he was about to spend the night in the woods. Once exiting the bus, he darted his head from side to side. Those that knew him figured he was likely scanning the surrounding area for zombies. "I thought he had some sort of pairs thing going on."

Not amused, Chris's happy expression finally faltered to narrowed eyes and a frown. "I DID, but I guess that's gone out the window now." Sighing, he gave a lackluster motion towards the new arrivals. "The Zombie Nut Shawn, and the Amazon Survivalist Jasmine, everyone."

"I'm from Australia, ya wombat," the survivalist snarked back, knowing fully well what the host meant but feeling the need to give him sass anyway. Turning back to Amy, she jabbed a finger at the mean twin. "And as I was saying, if you think you're going to get away with torturing your sister for another season, you've got another thing coming."

"Oh yeah?" Amy challenged, stepping forward defiantly. "And what are you going to do about it?"

Not expecting her to actually do anything, Amy's eyes went wide when Jasmine stood up to her, glaring down at the mean twin and showing off just how drastically she towered over her. Shawn scooted up to the scene, looking on in half concern and half entertainment.

"You sure you want to challenge her like that?" he asked, exchanging a smile with Sammy. "Because believe me, she'll take you up on it."

While Amy thought quite highly of herself, even she wasn't dumb enough to fool herself into thinking she stood any sort of chance against Jasmine. Feeling a rare sense of defeat, she mumbled something under her breath while storming off to join the other Pahkitew Island veterans. After giving her tall friend an appreciative smile, Sammy followed with Jasmine and Shawn in tow.

"And finally," Chris continued, returning to his former happy demeanor now that the situation had blown over. "Last and... well, arguably least. The human soundboard Beardo, and the friend zoned romantic, Dave."

The first of the final two contestants exited the bus, each step he took giving a booming sound of the earth shaking whenever a foot made contact. Which was strange because he was a short, scrawny little guy, dressed neat and looking timid. Once he was out of the bus a new sound effect echoed, this time of an angelic chorus giving his entrance a dramatic flare. Though he seemed to be fed up as he turned around with a glare.

"Can you not?"

It was revealed that he was addressing the final contestant to leave the bus. In contrast to him, this boy was on the larger size, with darker skin and one hell of an impressive beard. But even the beard paled in comparison to the guy's absolutely massive afro, easily giving him the biggest hairdo of the cast. Also revealed was the fact that these sounds were, as Chris had mentioned, coming from him. He decided to give his own descent down the stairs the sound of "Also sprach Zarathustra," the tune made famous in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Each step he took was accompanied by one of the grand brass tones from the piece, with the loudest drawn out note playing when he touched down with his arms spread out for added effect.

"Seriously, cut it out," Dave continued, forcing Beardo to end his tune short with a record scratch sound effect to emphasize the point. "I'd imagine you don't want to be eliminated first again, so cool it with the sound effects."

While dejected at his talent being received so negatively, Beardo couldn't deny that there was a point to be made over him not wanting to be another early boot again. Using the sound of a zipper closing, he motioned his hand across his mouth and flashed the germaphobe a thumbs up. Rolling his eyes, Dave just shrugged at the gesture and joined the others with Beardo behind him. The final bus drove off and finally the crew was assembled.

A huge satisfied grin on his face, Chris stretched out his arms and looked around at the cast of young adults. "And with that, we have our full cast for the season!"

The 24 contestants looked around at the competition, sizing each other up. With the exception of Courtney with Lightning and Scott, those from different generations had yet to compete against or even meet the others. All they had to go off of was what they had seen from watching their seasons on TV. And maybe a short cameo appearance or two in the cases of DJ and Izzy.

"This is an, uh... interesting cast," Dave observed, looking from Beardo, to Staci, to Izzy.

"Thank you, Dave," Chris said appreciatively, despite Dave's tone not being a complimentary one. Gesturing with his hand for the group to follow them, he began leading them through the airport.

"So as the twenty four of you may have already guessed from the lack of newbies in this cast, this is a new All Stars season." As Chris continued on, Courtney exchanged a look with Scott, both then looking away with the former scowling and the later looking awkward. Lightning, meanwhile, frowned at the mention of All Stars, the memory of his early elimination in it rushing back. "And as you also may have guessed by now, we're not doing Heroes vs Villains this time. It's gonna be a Battle of the Generations!"

Indeed, most of the contestants had already guessed as much due to each generation have a gender balanced eight participants each, but it was good to have confirmation. Shawn and Jasmine exchanged a high five, Harold pumped his fist with a "Booyah" while Leshawna smirked next to him, and B raised an eyebrow while giving a glance to Scott.

"Casting the lot of you was an interesting process," Chris continued, spinning around to look at the cast as they had made it outside of the airport building and out on to the runway. He first looked at the Revenge of the Island alumni. "You guys were probably the easiest. We brought back all six of you who didn't compete in the first All Stars. But since that left us two more male slots in need of filling, we had to choose two of the dudes from All Stars."

Frowning a bit as he recalled something, Chris shook it off. "Fans made it apparent they didn't want to see Mike or Cameron back, so we went with Lightning since he was the first of the All Stars eliminated."

"And why him over Sam?" Dakota asked, pointing a thumb at Scott with a glare. She was irritated but making sure not to get angry since this wasn't something worth going Dakotazoid over.

Chris shrugged innocently. "Scott's better for ratings, what can I say." Scott noticed the glare Dakota was giving him, as well as the other looks from his teammates since the attention had been drawn to him. He chuckled awkwardly. Chris, meanwhile, turned his attention to the Pahkitew Island crew.

"As for you guys, it was also a little bit of an easy process. Max and Scarlett are permanently banned from ever competing on the show ever again, I hate Ella, and Topher is stuck on... duties elsewhere." Chris chuckled mischievously, though the others had no idea why. "And since Sky is busy training for the Olympics, that just left you lot."

"Uh, no it doesn't," Sugar interrupted, hands on her hips and looking disappointed. "What about the wizard? Why ain't he back?"

The host's eye twitched, turning away from her to face the season one veterans instead. He took a deep long breath, turning his head up dismissively. "I have no idea who you're referring to, Sugar. Sounds like you're talking about some sort of dirty TRAITOR to me."

Silently, everyone took a second to process what Chris had meant. Nearly everyone there had seen The Ridonculous Race, and were well aware that Leonard had been part of the cast. While he didn't make it far, Ridonculous Race had been the biggest hit for the network since Total Drama, and it didn't take a rocket scientist to know this was what he was referring to. DJ and Courtney exchanged a look, both having come to the conclusion that this was likely why Owen, Noah, Geoff and by extension Bridgette weren't invited to this cast.

"And finally, we have our TDI vets," Chris finished, regaining composure and returning to his smiling self. "For you guys we went with Wannabe All Stars. People who probably could have made the cut to be on the first All Stars, only for us to end up thinking they weren't up to snuff. Bridgette was going to be the eighth member of your team, but due to... reasons, we decided to bring back Courtney from the first All Stars instead."

Looking over at Scott with a cheeky smirk, Chris chuckled. "Though we had our other reasons to bring her back as well."

Courtney sighed in annoyance, not even giving a look the dirt farmer's way. While she wasn't complaining about another shot at prize money, being the only former All Star on her team made her feel like a target could be on her back. Scott, too, was starting to feel this. Lightning wasn't, however, because when does he ever worry about anything?

The explanation on the casting done, Chris came to a stop in the middle of a runway strip, looking up at the sky and grinning. "And now, may I present to you the truly greatest return out of anything on this season. Please welcome back the Total Drama Jumbo Jet!"

Those from the season one cast gasped, everyone looking to the sky as the very same jet descended from above. Piloting with an annoyed glare, Chef brought the plane down the runway, expertly coming to a stop right next to Chris and the others.

"No way," Izzy said in awe. "We're having another World Tour?"

"Well I mean, they brought us to an airport, wasn't that obvious?" Harold pointed out, though Izzy either didn't hear him or ignored him.

"But didn't Sierra blow it to smithereens back in season three?" Beth asked, both confused and intimidated since this would be her first time flying on the deathtrap.

"Apparently globe trotting themes are big with fans right now," Chris answered, trying and failing to hide any bitterness to his tone. "So the producers gave us the budget needed to repair it. But hey, I guess I can't complain. I missed the big thing. And it looks good as new!"

On cue, one of the engines on the right wing sputtered and blew a concerning amount of smoke out. Those that had yet to ride the plane looked on in worry, but those that had knew this was going to be par for the course. One particular contestant was starting to look more concerned than the rest. B tapped his fingers together nervously, and Dawn took notice.

"Excuse me, Chris?" Dawn asked politely, raising her hand. "Will the required singing be returning for this season as well?"

"Pfft, required," Cody snarked in a voice low enough to not be heard. He knew very well that he had failed to sing in the vast majority of the songs he could have taken part in but didn't, yet nothing was ever done to him. But he wasn't about to bring this up to Chris.

"Why yes, Dawn, yes it is," the host answered happily, smiling directly at B, knowing fully well that he was the reason she had asked in the first place. "And unlike last time where the rule was hardly enforced after Duncan's ejection, we're going to make sure that EVERYONE present for a song will participate. Doesn't that sound great, Cody?"

" _Well crap,_ " Cody thought to himself, busted.

Meanwhile, B was beginning to sweat, something Chris took quick notice of. "However, we're on a tight schedule this season and those songs take up a lot of precious screentime, so we won't be doing them every episode like last time. Something more like every other episode instead. So no singing for today, at least." Seeing the silent genius relax a bit, Chris continued. "However, as I said the rules of singing will be STRICTLY enforced. If you don't sing, you're out. No exceptions."

That all said, Chris moved toward the Jumbo Jet as a set of stairs had lowered from the now open door in the side of the plane. B gulped, Dawn patting him on the arm reassuringly.

"There there, you'll think of something," she offered, trying to relax the normally mute genius.

"Maybe you could just do one or two words per song?" Brick added, also seeing his teammate's concern and feeling a need to help. "As long as it counts, that way you can get it out of the way."

While the Revenge of the Island cast tried to calm down B, Jasmine was giving Shawn a concerned look. "Are you gonna be alright with us up in the air in a closed in space?"

The zombie nut had been looking over the jet, taking it all in while tapping his chin in thought. He nodded at his girlfriend. "I'll have to give the plane a thorough checking each time we take off to make sure no lurchers snuck their way on board, but after that I should be fine. Being up in the air is a pretty safe place to avoid zombies as long as there aren't any already on the plane."

"Or you could just not since they don't even exist," Amy pointed out. She soon came to regret it as she once again felt the icy glare from Jasmine staring a hole through her. Deflated, she looked off and huffed. "Whatever, do what you want, I guess."

"AHEM." Loudly clearing his throat, all eyes turned back towards Chris, now standing next to the stairs leading up to the jet. "If you kids are done, we have a tour to go on. Even if you've watched World Tour before, we gotta cover all our bases."

Nobody really having anything to add or reply to with that, everyone followed the host on board. They were first brought to the large dining area. There were three plain tables spread throughout the room, with eight metal seats surrounding each. There was a small wooden shelf on one side of the room with a water pitcher, plates, and cups resting on top, and another shelf nearby with condiment bottles like ketchup and mustard on top.

"Here is, of course, your eating quarters," Chris said to point out the obvious. "Our Head Pilot Chef will so graciously be serving the lot of you three meals a day, giving you the best that airline food has to offer! It's also a nice little place to hang out and mingle if you need a change of scenery from where you're sleeping."

"Did you know my great great great grandfather Kevin was the one to invent plates?" Staci suddenly offered, getting a mix of confused or annoyed looks her way. "Ya, before him everyone just had to eat with their hands and get food everywhere."

"Uh... huh," Chris replied, not amused at the sudden input. "Moving on."

Next the contestants were brought to a room that consistently mostly of two simple wooden benches lining both walls. Above the benches attached to the walls were multiple arm straps that looked about as comfy as a root canal. Rodney had been chosen to demonstrate the straps, and the farm boy could be seen cringing as the flimsy straps struggled to go over his massive arms.

"Here is where our losers will be sleeping if they weren't fortunate enough to win the challenge," McLean explained, motioning to Rodney to prove his point. "You get a nice hard bench to rest your rear end, and some safety straps to keep you from getting ping ponged around the room in your sleep when we hit some turbulence."

"It was actually my great third cousin twice removed Cynthia that invented the seat belt," Staci once again added, earning a sigh from Chris. "Ya, before her if someone got in a crash they just flew out of the window!"

Nobody wanted to comment on the obviously fake tangent. Harold sucked in a breath, feeling the urge to point out the actual inventor of the seat belt, but he had watched Revenge of the Island and didn't want to seem mean by shooting down Staci's story.

"We all know that's a bunch of bull, but whatever," Chris continued, not feeling the need for restraint that Harold felt. "Moving on, let's see where our winners will be staying!"

The contestants were brought to a room that actually resembled what one would expect on an airplane. A fairly nice one at that. The room was well lit and colorful, a departure from the dull gray that the rest of the plane had been thus far. Comfy yellow seats lined the walls, and at the back of the room was even a mini bar with various beverages and treats sat behind glass. All non-alcoholic of course, since most of these players were too young to drink.

"And here we have the Winner's Area, a first class section made for comfort," Chris pointed out, walking down the room while many of the contestants tried out the chairs to confirm how pleasant they were. "Leshawna, Harold, and DJ, as alumni of Team Victory you might not remember it too well since you never stayed here."

"Actually I did make it here a few tim-" DJ began, only to be cut off by Chris suddenly starting again.

"ANYWAY, anytime your team wins a challenge, you get to stay here until we arrive at our next destination. If you don't want to need a chiropractor after the season from sitting on those loser benches too much, I'd prioritize trying to be here as much as possible."

Trent rubbed the armrests of a seat, Beth sitting next to him. "These ARE pretty nice. They must have replaced the seats after the old ones got blown up last time."

Suddenly, the musician felt something strange as he reached a bit farther down the side of the seat which had a wood siding. Looking down, his eyes went wide as he saw the source. Carved into the wood with a knife was a picture of Gwen's face. Those that had watched season three would remember that Duncan had carved it after her elimination. Looking over to see what Trent had found, Beth chuckled awkwardly.

"I guess some seats survived and got reused?"

Suddenly the scene changed to show Trent sitting in the jet's bathroom. It was a rather cramped room, just with a simple airplane toilet, sink, and a window on the side, but it was comparatively quite clean when stacked up to the usual outhouse confessional.

 ***** Confessional: Trent *****

"Look, I got over me and Gwen breaking up a long time ago," he explained to the camera. "And I was all for her and Duncan becoming a couple... not that he really treated her well and not that they lasted long, but still. I was cool with it. But I'm not gonna lie, seeing a reminder of her every time we stay in first class sucks a bit."

"What an excellent segway into introducing the confessional, Trent," Chris practically yelled as he suddenly threw open the door and barged into the confessional, making Trent yell and scoot back in shock. "Everyone group around, this is the confessional cam."

The remaining players all crowded around outside the bathroom, with Sugar and Lightning even managing to poke their heads in and make it even more cramped for Trent.

"Despite everything, something you all have in common is making confessionals on the toilet, so you should all feel right at home here when you feel the need to vent your frustrations." He chuckled, smiling at the still shocked musician. "Just remember to lock the door unlike our friend Trent here. Alternatively, we have a confessional in the cockpit. It didn't see much use last time, so feel free to try it out!"

 ***** Cockpit Confessional: Dave *****

Dave looked around at his surroundings. It was as Chris said, the cockpit of the plane. There were various panels, buttons, and such at the front of the plane all shoddily held in place. There was a pilot and co-pilot seat, and sat in the pilot seat was none other than Chef in his blue pilot outfit. He faced forward away from the camera, focusing on flying. On the dash were little bobble heads of Chris and Chef, and parachutes were attached to the backs of both seats.

"Huh, don't know why they wouldn't use this one more often. It definitely beats talking to the camera in a gross bathroom every time."

"Would you pipe down already?" Chef suddenly barked back at the germophobe, making him jump back and hold his arms up defensively. "I'm trying to fly a gosh darn plane over here!"

Returning to his flight position, Dave slowly eased up, giving the camera a wide eyed stare. "Aaaaand, now I see why they didn't use this one more often."

 ***** In the cargo hold *****

With the confessionals done for now, everyone had gathered in the largest room at the back of the plane. It was a spacious cargo hold, filled with various crates, boxes, and bags. Shawn had wasted no time in scurrying around the area, getting the heebie jeebies from the cramped cargo. He had to make sure it was clear of the zombie menace before one ended up popping out from around a corner.

"As you can see, this is the cargo hold," Chris pointed out, paying Shawn no mind. Nor did he pay any mind when B had started rummaging through various crates and boxes. "There isn't really anything game related to do here on a surface level, it's just where we store all our supplies and such for the show. Buuuut it makes for a pretty good place to sneak off to when you kids want to plot and have secret meetings."

Everyone took in the area, thinking over the potential of its uses. Since it was so massive and filled with junk, it definitely would be easy to get into some shenanigans in it without being caught. Sugar rubbed her chin in thought and Lightning grinned.

"And finally, we have one more room of importance to check out," Chris said, now noticing Shawn and B doing their own things. He snapped his fingers to get their attention. "Yo, you guys can mess around in here all you want when the tour is done. Get your butts in gear."

As the host led the cast away to their next destination, Shawn reluctantly so, Sugar noticed a strange door between the cargo and first class area. "Oooh, what's in here?"

Inviting herself in, Sugar shoved the door open to reveal the most lavish room yet. A top of the line flatscreen TV, a hot tub next to a wood burning oven. There was a piano, a comfy chair next to martini glasses, and a king sized bed.

"Well dang, ain't this place swanky," she observed, the others filing in after she had barged into the room, forcing Chris to follow her. "What if I wanna stay in here?"

Chris opened his mouth to reply, but Harold beat him to the punch. "This is Chris' room, it's off limits to us. It's also where most of the budget went to for this jet. You'd think they'd skip this part when they had to rebuild the thing, but I guess not."

"There's perks that come with being someone important, Harold," Chris replied matter of factly, sending a glare to him and then Sugar. "Now if you two are done interrupting me, I still have one more place to show you."

The final location Chris had brought the contestants to was a small room with a set of bleachers. There were spotlights shining down on to a stage that had a floral curtain backdrop and a sort of podium made from a drum. Nearby was an exit door, with a large tiki face on each side.

"And thus we come to my favorite part of the jet. The elimination ceremony!" Chris stood behind the drum podium, pulling a disgusting looking bag full of peanuts out from seemingly nowhere. "Every time a team loses, they'll be forced to vote off one of their own teammates. Those safe receive these barf bags full of peanuts."

"Didn't you give up on handing those out like as soon as Team Victory was gone?" Cody asked, getting the bag the host was holding thrown into his face as a response.

"As I was saying," Chris said, leveling a glare the geek's way. "The person that does NOT receive a barf bag will be promptly removed from the Jumbo Jet and get sent packing with just a parachute to protect themselves. And while we're on the subject of teams, even if you already know who you're on a team with, we need to make things official."

"Hey, this reminds me about how my great great great uncle Boris was the first person to serve peanuts at the circ-" Staci began to say, getting an intense glare from Chris as she started, but her mouth was quickly covered by the hand of Anne Maria, giving her talkative teammate a look that told her that she needed to be quiet.

"Hehe, you were saying?" Anne Maria asked.

 ***** Confessional: Anne Maria *****

"Look, I don't watch too much of this show, but World Tour was one of the few seasons that I did. And that freaky green kid that tricked me with that fake diamond ended up getting targeted by McLean when he wouldn't shut his yap. The last thing we need is Chatterbox getting thrown out, stowing away in the plane, and becoming like him. Plus we don't need to be down someone already, especially if the big guy ends up not being able to sing."

 ***** In the dining area *****

Chris had eventually motioned everyone back into the dining area, making all of the generation teams stand on separate circles placed apart form each other. Those from Total Drama Island stood on a blue circle, Revenge of the Island reps stood on a green circle, and Pahkitew Island alumni on a red circle. Walking down the room, Chris first came to a stop at the red circle.

"Those of you from the third generation. From now on you will be known as... Team Explosive!"

On screen a red team logo appeared, showing a stick of dynamite with the fuse lit. The host then moved down to the green circle.

"You guys from the second generation? You all will be known as... Team Radioactive!"

Once again the team logo flashed on screen, this time in green. It was a vat of leaking toxic waste with a skull symbol on the front. Finally, Chris arrived at the blue circle.

"And of course, my veterans from the first generation. Collectively, you all make up... Team Old School!"

The final logo to appear, this one in blue, displayed the thousand foot high cliff from Camp Wawanakwa.

As the teams murmured in discussion about these names and logos, Izzy looked let down. "Aw come on, that name's kinda boring compared to radioactive and explosive isn't it?" She motioned at the other logos. "I mean those sound all exciting and dangerous, and ours is just all bluuuh."

Folding his arms, Chris gave the lunatic a curious look. "And do you have a better suggestion?"

"Hmmm." Izzy rubbed her chin, thinking over her options. Team Explosivo? Nah, that was so season two. Team Victory? No, that didn't work out so well for the last team to try it. "How about-"

"It was a rhetorical question," Chris cut off, placing a hand in front of her face to prevent her from finishing. "It's Team Old School."

Ignoring the glare now being sent his way from Izzy, Chris walked off to his personal quarters for what he felt was well earned relaxation time. "You may all now do as you please until we arrive at the location of your first challenge. I'll be relaxing in the meanwhile."

"If you don't mind me asking, what IS the first location?" Sammy asked curiously.

"Why yes, yes I do mind you asking," Chris replied, narrowing his eyes at the nice twin before returning to his smile. "But eh, what the heck, I'll tell ya. So last World Tour, we were able to hit six out of the seven continents throughout the season. We decided to start things off this time by hitting the one we missed first."

Realization quickly dawned on those that had a basic memory of geography, with those in outfits made more for warmer environments beginning to look nervous since they hadn't packed anything other than more copies of the same outfit, per their contract's orders.

"I'm going to go ahead and guess that we aren't going to be provided coats to protect from the Antarctic cold, right?" DJ asked.

"You kids know me so well! You really ARE All Stars!" With a last mischievous, taunting laugh, the host took his leave.

 ***** Cockpit Confessional: Scott *****

The devious leaned his back against the co-pilot seat, giving the camera an annoyed glare. "Right now my plan is to lay low and not make any big waves. Other than Lightning, the last thing most of the guys on my team remember me for is getting their butts kicked off in season four. I can already tell the mutant has it out for me since they brought me back instead of her boyfriend. Last thing I need is getting kicked off early because these people don't know how to let go of a grudge."

"He probably just wants to stay because he wants to try hooking back up with Courtney," Chef commented from his seat, not bothering to turn around. Flustered, Scott stepped towards the pilot with a puffed out chest.

"I want the money, she ain't the only reason I want to stay!"

"Yeah, but she's the main reason," Chef shot back, chuckling as he turned to face the farmer. "Don't kid yourself, dirt boy."

Scott simply turned away with his arms folded, mumbling obscenities under his breath but failing to deny the accusation.

 ***** In the cargo hold *****

With the required tour over, the cast's zombie fanatic was ready to resume his jet search, making sure the vessel was free of the undead. Due to the massive size of the cargo hold, but mostly just to remain in each other's company, he had two tag alongs in the form of Jasmine and Sammy. As they entered the room, the trio were surprised to see that they had actually been beaten to beginning their investigation. Dawn and B were looking through one crate, with Brick looking through another nearby. Curious, Shawn approached the group.

"You guys checking for zombies too?" he asked, unsure why else they'd all be here as well.

"Not quite," Dawn answered without looking up from the crate. She picked up a small busted speaker, showing it to B who smiled and nodded. He look the piece and tucked it away into a pocket while the search continued. "We're rummaging through the cargo to help B with something."

"Would you care to help us?" Brick asked, offering the Pahkitew alumni a warm smile. "We could really use some more hands on deck."

The third generation trio exchanged looks of uncertainty. Jasmine decided to voice the obvious. "I don't know. No offense, but it's probably not a great idea to be helping the enemy right out of the gate."

"Technically the competition hasn't truly started yet," Sammy pointed out. "So they're not our enemies right now."

Seemingly at an impasse, the girls looked to Shawn to break the tie. The scruffy boy stroked his stubble in thought, weighing their options. "Well, we DO need to look through the cargo anyway, so it would be easy to help." He snapped his fingers, thinking of an idea. "Tell ya what, since this could end up helping you guys in the long run, we'll help under the condition that you guys help me with my zombie checks as long as you're still in the game. This cargo hold is pretty massive, so the extra help would definitely make things more efficient."

There was a mix of reactions from the second generation trio. Brick seemed the most confused of all, though if his puzzlement was over the zombie subject or just from committing to such a long term deal was up to debate. Dawn, meanwhile, smiled in response. She seemed to have no objections with the deal. After looking down and pondering it, B finally flashed the conspiracy nut a thumbs up, accepting the conditions of the deal.

"Sweet!" Shawn and the others gathered around to join the Revenge of the Island competitors. "So what are you guys looking for?"

 ***** Confessional: Jasmine *****

"I'll be honest, I still don't fully understand Shawn's fascination with zombies," the Australian admitted, having to hunch over a bit in the bathroom due to her immense height. "But hey, I like that he's so weird. As for those Team Radioactive guys, they seem alright enough. I'm not too crazy about helping them out, but if they're willing to help keep Shawn at ease then I guess it's a fair trade."

 ***** Somewhere over Antarctica *****

The plane ride to the first destination was largely uneventful. Outside of the cargo hold group, the rest of the competitors stuck mostly to their own teams to catch up and discuss potential strategies. They all stuck to the first class area since there was no reason to stay in economy until they had to. Eventually, they could look out the window to see miles upon miles of ice and snow. Landing the Jumbo Jet on the ice would be no easy feat, but Chef was a talented man when he cared and he pulled it off.

Eventually everyone found their way outside after a slide emerged from one of the exits to bring everyone down to the ice. The crowd of competitors shivered, hugging themselves in a fruitless attempt for warmth. Chris, meanwhile, joined the group while wearing a large comfy coat, snow boots, and thick cozy mittens. He was as toasty and comfortable as anyone in Antarctica could be, but no one from the cast bothered to complain since they knew this would always be the case as the difference between their treatment and the host's.

"Welcome to the site of your very first challenge of the season," McLean started, motioning around him to ice, ice, and more ice. "Antarctica is the world's lowest populated continent. That might have something to do with it also being the coldest, windiest, and driest continent. Not a whole lot to do here unless you really REALLY like ice skating."

Chris moved in front of three huge slabs of ice, each clearly holding something frozen within, though it was hard to see through the thick ice. "Your challenge is a throwback to the first challenge from World Tour. But instead of racing to the Nile, you'll be racing to the South Pole! We've traded the desert for a tundra."

"Actually, most of Antarctica could still be described as a desert due to the low amount of precipitation," Courtney pointed out, receiving agreeing nods from Cody and B. "Not all deserts are the hot sandy kind, a lot of them are like this."

The sinister host narrowed his eyes at the former All Star, disappointed. "Court, I expect those kind of dumb tangents out of Harold, not you."

 ***** Confessional: Courtney *****

"Being compared to Harold... yeah, not sure if I've ever been more insulted."

 ***** In Antarctica *****

"As I was saying," the host continued, motioning to the huge blocks of ice. "You all will be racing to the South Pole. Inside these blocks of ice are three things you'll be needing. First is an eight seated snowmobile, which will be KINDA useful to make such a big trip. Next is a GPS which will give you directions to the South Pole, equally useful. And perhaps most useful of all if you want to win is a flag baring your team's logo. The first team to plant their flag next to the South Pole wins first class. The team that does it last gets to be the first team of the season to send some sorry loser packing!"

The crowd looked each other over, feeling the sense of competition. None of them wanted the distinction of being the first person eliminated. Beardo and Staci exchanged a look, both having realized that unless this was a surprise double elimination, at least one of them would avoid being the first boot again. Heck, if Team Old School lost maybe even both of them. Some like Lightning and Shawn looked confident. Others like Beth and Sammy seemed nervous. And then there was Izzy, but no one dared to wonder what was going on in her mind.

"Part one is simple, retrieve everything you need from the ice by any means necessary." Chris looked over at the jumbo jet where a ramp had just opened, making it possible to enter the cargo hold. "Anything you can find in the cargo hold is fair game to use, so go wild. First team to get everything out of the ice will receive a reward that will help during the race. The team that frees everything last will get a handicap. So don't be last!"

Reaching into his coat pocket, Chris pulled out an item the contestants recognized well. His trusty air horn. Plugging their ears, they braced themselves just in time for the host's mighty blast with the device. "Begin!"

Everyone ran up to their giant slabs of ice, though no one made an immediate move to do anything to it since they were far too massive for it to be an easy endeavor. Shawn was the first to make a call after looking from the ice to his team.

"Alright, I'd say we probably have the most potential body heat out of any of these teams," he pointed out, noting the size of both Rodney and Beardo. "We could have our larger teammates working on melting bits of the ice while the rest of us check the cargo for something useful."

"I don't know, could we really do much to it just using body heat?" Rodney asked skeptically, in awe at the size of this ice. It was an absolute unit.

"It'll be fine," Jasmine replied. "Some gradual progress is better than no progress. Shawn, Sammy, and I already did some looking around in the cargo hold so we can afford having less searchers."

The outback girl gave Rodney a look to see if he had been convinced. As it turns out, looking into her eyes made Rodney sigh dreamily, throwing up an approving thumbs up. "Sounds like a good plan to me."

"Alright, then Jasmine, Sugar, Rodney, and Beardo will stay out here and try to melt some of the ice while the rest of us hit up the cargo," the zombie nut continued, pointing a thumb at the plane. "Since me and Sammy already got a feel of the place, Amy can search with me and Dave can search with her."

Shawn wasn't particularly thrilled at the idea of pairing up with Amy to search for things to help with the ice, but he knew fully well that pairing the evil twin with her sister was a bad idea for everyone involved. It was for the good of the team that he be the one to deal with her. Dave and Sammy exchanged a nod and jogged off towards the plan, while Amy rolled her eyes and reluctantly followed the defacto team captain.

The other teams, meanwhile, had all chosen to begin searching the cargo hold. Of the two, however, Team Radioactive had the distinct advantage of also having members who had previously searched the area. With Dawn and B directing traffic, Scott, Anne Maria, and Staci carried pickaxes out to their ice. Meanwhile, Team Old School was searching more or less blindly for anything of use.

"I wonder if Chris has any flame throwers lying around?" Izzy wondered out loud as she and Trent searched through one of the crates. "That would help!"

The musician chuckled awkwardly, half from amusement and the other half from the scary thought of Izzy being allowed to use a flame thrower in the first place. "Yeah, somehow I doubt we're gonna find one of those just lying around."

Eventually everyone had gathered the supplies they felt would work. Team Radioactive stuck with their pickaxes, getting to work on chipping away the ice. Team Old School had eventually stumbled upon a crate full of tools and decided to make due with that. DJ and Leshawna went to town on the ice with hammers, Trent and Courtney stood on opposite ends of a two handed saw to try and cut through the ice, with Harold, Beth, and Cody alternating from using whatever else they could find in the toolbox they brought with varying results. Izzy had elected to stay in the cargo hold to look for anything else of use that might help better. Her teammates allowed this to maximize the time they didn't have to worry about being around her using dangerous tools.

Unfortunately for both teams, though, they were quickly losing progress to Team Explosive. Shawn had located a crate holding ice climbing equipment during his zombie search, so he and Amy brought back enough for the whole team to use. Sammy meanwhile had brought back a camping stove she had noticed during the aforementioned search, lit it with a lighter found in the same crate, and was using it to help melt parts of the ice at a much quicker pace. Meanwhile she had directed Dave to bring back some old blankets found elsewhere to help those that had been formerly melting parts of the ice with their body heat. With Shawn and Jasmine calling directions, the team was making short work of their goal with ice axes and ice picks.

This early lead didn't go unnoticed by the others, with Lightning being the first to speak out about it. "Hey, we ain't about to let them noobies smoke us on the first challenge, are we?" He increased the speed of his work, hoping to single handedly catch up.

"Brother's right," Leshawna commented from the Gen One team's area, watching as Rodney lobbed off a sizable chunk with a single ice pick thrust. "At the rate they're going, our odds ain't looking too good."

Courtney didn't bother looking at the other team, focusing instead on her sawing. "Well hopefully Izzy finds something useful that can turn things around. For now just try picking up the pace and hoping for the best."

The team did just that, going faster to try in vain to catch up. But in vain it seemed to be, since Team Explosive continued to make good progress. Sugar lodged an ice axe into one section, putting her foot against the block of ice and pulling a chunk out with Beardo providing a guillotine sound effect as she did so. The two exchanged a high five and continued their work. Nearby, Dave and Amy had nearly made it to the GPS, a small black device with a screen.

Between the early domination from the Pahkitew alumni and the upped pace from Team Old School, Scott in particular was feeling the pressure. After all, he didn't know how well his odds fared if his team were to send someone home first. As he glanced over at Team Explosive nervously, he caught look of something. Nearby on the ground next to Sammy, who was focusing on melting the block, was a lighter. With such a puny flame by itself it wouldn't make much of a difference on its own, so it had already served its purpose for her. But ever the schemer, Scott had an idea.

Doing his best to go unnoticed by the focused Gen Three team members, he snuck over and swiped up the lighter. When he returned to his own team's block of ice, he went straight to Anne Maria. "I have an idea. I need one of your cans of hairspray."

The Jersey girl didn't seem too pleased at the offer, reeling away from the farmer and clutching her spray can protectively. "Excuse you? Nobody touches my spray, especially not a slimeball like you, capiche?"

"It'll be just for a second, you don't want us to lose do ya?" Scott asked again, trying to mask any frustration in his tone since he was feeling the urgency.

Dawn blinked, looking on at the former villain skeptically. But after looking for a bit she felt... nothing malicious? Sincerity in what he was saying? How strange...

"I think it's worth a try, it wouldn't hurt to let him have it momentarily," the moonchild commented, getting surprised reactions from B and Dakota next to her. "As far as I can tell, he isn't trying to deceive you."

Anne Maria was equally as surprised as her teammates to hear the support for Scott's suggestion. But after taking another look as Team Explosive to see that they had now retrieved their GPS and were now closing in on getting their flag, she sighed and shoved the spray can into Scott's arms. "Fine. But this betta work."

Scott, too, had not been expecting words of agreement from Dawn, so he was slightly caught off guard when Anna Maria handed the can over. But he had to work fast, so he held up the lighter in front of the nozzle and took aim at their block of ice. "You guys might wanna stand back."

Once his teammates had did just that, he held down the nozzle and lit the lighter. Just as planned, the highly combustible hair spray turned into a makeshift flame thrower, showering the ice in flames that quickly melted through it. Both of the opposing teams were caught off guard by the sudden blast of heat, looking on in shock.

"Welp, so much for avoiding getting our stuff last," Cody commented, knowing their team was still much too behind Team Explosive and that this would easily put Team Radioactive ahead of them.

"Aw, no fair! Using fire was my idea first." Those on her team looked over to the cargo hold ramp at the sound of Izzy's voice, their eyes all going wide once they saw her. "Also, look what I found, guys!"

The redhead ran over to her teammates wielding a chainsaw, revving it up to bring the device to life. As the tool whired and the saw spun, the members of Team Old School quickly dived out of the way. Once she had reached the ice, Izzy began cutting through it like butter.

"Woah..." Rodney looked on at his fellow redhead cutting up the ice in awe, having never seen a girl handle a power tool quite like that before. Needless to say, he was smitten. But he was quickly snapped out of it by a loud air horn blast. Or at least the realistic sound effect of one, courtesy of Beardo.

"We need to move quick," Dave pointed out, the teammates nodding in agreement. They had since freed their flag so now only lacked freeing the massive eight seat snowmobile. Everyone put their all to it, and the race became neck and neck.

Team Radioactive had to take short pauses between blasts of fire so that the items wouldn't be damaged by the fire. Once they had melted close enough, Lightning and Dakota dislodged both their GPS and their flag, allowing Scott to continue. Izzy, meanwhile, cut a small chunk out of the block that held their GPS, allowing DJ and Harold to easily free it nearby. She then did the same to their flag, with Beth and Trent also retrieving that. All three teams were down to just the snowmobile. It looked to be anyone's game. But eventually the confirmation came from Chris as one snowmobile emerged from the ice first.

"And the winners of part one are... Team Old School!"

The season one veterans cheered for joy, gathered around their newly freed ride. Izzy kissed the now turned off chainsaw, then held it up victoriously.

"And close behind them in second place," the host continued. "Is... Team Radioactive!"

Scott sneered over at the winning team, giving Anne Maria back her hair spray and tossing away the lighter in frustration. While they hadn't lost, the annoyance of coming so close to winning made second place feel just as bad. The feeling wasn't mutual for the Pahkitew newcomers, though. They looked on in disappointment, having just freed their snowmobile as well.

"Which of course means our losers for the first part of the challenge are Team Explosive," Chris confirmed, laughing at the team's misfortune. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a remote with three buttons, pressing the button colored red. "So they get the punishment!"

Suddenly, a mechanical click went off and the back two seats on Team Explosive's snowmobile detached from the rest of the vehicle. Chef emerged from who knows where, pushing away the dislodged seats off screen.

"As punishment, your eight man team will now be down two seats, making your ride to the South Pole all the more difficult." The host turned his attention to Team Old School. "As for our winners, they each get a reward that will help them in part two of the challenge."

Chef returned, passing out red stick-like instruments to each of the members of Team Old School. They were long with a rubber handle and two prongs at the end.

"Cattle prods?" Beth asked, the first to recognize the device. "What do we need these for?"

"What indeed?" Chris replied unhelpfully, turning to face the camera with his trademark smug grin. "Will I tell them what the cattle prods are for? How will the losers deal with not having enough seats for their team? And who will win the race to the South Pole? Answers will be revealed, next time on TOTAL... DRAMA... BATTLE OF THE GENERATIONS!"

The contestants watched with varying expressions of annoyance and disdain as their host signed off, with Sugar leaning over to Amy to whisper that actual last words some of the others had been silently thinking. "Kind of a long winded title, ain't it?"

 **Current Standings:**

 **Voting Confessionals:**

N/A

 **Remaining Contestants:**

Team Old School: Izzy, DJ, Harold, Leshawna, Trent, Beth, Cody, Courtney

Team Radioactive: Brick, Anne Maria, B, Staci, Dawn, Dakota, Scott, Lightning

Team Explosive: Rodney, Sugar, Sammy, Amy, Jasmine, Shawn, Dave, Beardo

 **Elimination Order:**

N/A


	2. A Cool Reunion part 2

"Previously on Battle of the Generations," Chris said in a voice over, accompanying relevant clips playing during everything he said. "We brought back eight competitors from all three Total Drama generations to duke it out in an All Stars season for the ages! And even better, also returning was none other than the Jumbo Jet! After breaking up the victims in teams from their respective generations, we dropped them off in Antarctica for their first challenge. They first had to retrieve items out of a huge block of ice by any means necessary. Team Explosive took an early lead thanks to Shawn and Jasmine's leadership, but ultimately some chainsaw craziness from Izzy and homemade flame throwing from Scott put Teams Old School and Radioactive in 1st and 2nd respectively. Can Team Explosive recover on the race to the South Pole? Can Team Old School keep their momentum going? And just who will be the first one I get to kick out of our plane? All of these questions and more, right here right now on TOTAL... DRAMA... BATTLE OF THE GENERATIONS!"

 ***** Opening Credits *****

The scene opened on the teens all gathered around their snowmobiles, arms wrapped around themselves and shivering while Chris and Chef stood nearby.

"Alright gang, you have five minutes to prepare your game plan before the race to the South Pole begins. Get to it!"

Murmuring among teams started up immediately. Harold was eager to take the GPS for Team Old School. "I can be our navigator if no one else wants to do it. I think my time at Navigation Steve's Navigation Camp will really come in handy here. Who wants to be the driver?"

"Oh, oh, I do!" Izzy jumped up and down with her hand raised, a wicked grin spread on her face. "Izzy will get us there lickety split."

"No offense, sugar, we really appreciate you helping us win part one," Leshawna cut in, placing a hand on Izzy's shoulder. "But that ain't happening. Anyone else wanna drive?"

"I can do it," Courtney answered. "Can't be any harder to drive than DJ's tour bus from a few year ago."

"We never did get the deposit back on that thing," DJ trailed off, arms folded and looking down in annoyance.

Beth, meanwhile, was cautiously looking over the cattle prod each of them had been given. "I just want to know what these things are for. Knowing Chris, it can't be good."

While the team went silent to contemplate the use of the tool, some of Team Radioactive's members looked on at Scott hesitantly.

"Come on, I drive grand pappy's truck back home all the time, I can handle this thing no problem," he insisted, noting unconvinced looks from Dakota and B particularly. "I helped us not lose part one, didn't I?"

"Yeah, but we didn't WIN it either," Anne Maria pointed out, clutching her hair spray a bit more protectively. "And don't think that just one good move is gonna make people forget you being sketchy."

"Bickering won't get us anywhere, I'm afraid." Dawn had took it upon herself to retrieve the GPS for the team since their most tech inclined teammate wasn't in a position to give directions. "If it helps quell any doubts, I'll take up navigating. I have as much reason as any of us to mistrust Scott so I'll be sure he's kept on track."

No one seemed to have any opposition, Scott included, so the team began to get into position on the snowmobile. Meanwhile, the final team was figuring out how to make use of their handicap of having two less seats than the others.

"Alright, Shawn and I can share a seat with him sitting on my lap, but we still need two of you to do the same," Jasmine pointed out, looking over the team. "Any takers?"

An awkward silence spread across the squad. Sugar whistled non-nonchalantly while Dave averted his eyes at the thought of having to share space with someone else. Finally, of all people, Amy raised her hand.

"I think I could share a seat with Rodney." She gave him a smile, as sweet as she could manage. "If he's ok with that, at least."

Unsurprisingly, rather than replying with anything actually legible, Rodney responded by babbling nondescript nonsense. His face turned red and he rubbed the back of his head awkwardly.

 ***** Confessional: Amy** ***

"Look, I didn't WANT to have to share a seat with anyone, but it's weirding me out how much tall girl and her gross boyfriend are defending my lame-o sister. I need to start getting people on MY side because, uh hello, Sammey being more popular than me? Not in a million years." She grinned devilishly. "Rodney looked like the easiest to get on my side. He'll be loyal to me before the end of the day."

 ***** Somewhere in Antarctica *****

The teams had all since gotten into position. Courtney and Scott has taken positions behind the wheel as their team's respective drivers, with Harold and Dawn in the seats next to them as navigators. After the pairing issue had been resolved, Sammy handled driving for her team while Dave manned the GPS. At the back of the vehicle for Team Explosive, Shawn sat on Jasmine's lap while Amy sat on Rodney's. The farm boy's face was still a deep shade of red, while Beardo provided a sputtering engine sound effect despite how the snowmobile hadn't been started up yet.

"Alright kids, simple enough, don't be the last to show up to the South Pole." Holding up his trusty air horn, the sadistic host gave it a mighty blast to signify the start of the next phase. "Begin!"

Courtney, Sammy, and Scott all took off without hesitation. They put the pedal to the metal, leaning forward as they drove as fast as their snow mobiles would take them. It was after about five minutes or so that someone made an observation.

"Sha-why the heck are we still neck and neck with the other teams?" Lightning asked loud enough for all three teams to hear.

Indeed, while there was space between the three vehicles, they were all more or less neck and neck with no sign of anyone pulling ahead of the other. Their vehicles were all going as fast as they could, and it was clear none were more fast than the others.

"Huh. Yeah, that is kinda weird, ain't it?" Trent glanced over at the other teams with a raised eyebrow. "It'll be a pretty boring race if it keeps up like this the whole time."

"Well knowing Chris it can't be that easy," Cody pointed out. He looked down at the cattle prod in his hand, eyes going wide in realization. "Wait a minute, you don't think we're supposed to use these things on THEM do you?"

"We aren't electrocuting anyone," DJ said matter of factly, lowering Cody's prod down. "Besides, that'd give us even more of a boring advantage. That can't be it."

Meanwhile, Team Explosive were also thinking over Lightning's observation, with Sugar breaking the silence. "Well shoot, something's gotta happen to make this more interesting, how far away are we from that pole anyhow?"

Dave squinted as he read the GPS. "The South Pole is at the Amundsen-Scott station and we're currently about... a little under 80 miles away from it."

"So we're in it for the long haul," Shawn confirmed, scanning the icy terrain for anything suspicious. "Something's gotta give soon. Stay on your toes, guy-"

Shawn was cut off by a sudden loud bang coming from behind. Due to the close proximity of everyone, all teams quickly glanced back to see the source of the noise. Sure enough, a helicopter was fast approaching overhead, a familiar grinning host leaning out the window with a stick of dynamite in hand.

"You kids were probably beginning to wonder when things were going to get more interesting," Chris yelled once the helicopter was close enough for the contestants to hear him. "And you're in luck! This is that moment."

Casually, he chucked the stick of dynamite in front of the group. It landed just a bit in front of Team Radioactive's path, causing their snowmobile to swerve out of the way wildly before Scott corrected their path.

"Oh, great," Staci grumbled, wanting to make a quip about her ancestor that invented explosives but being too stressed to do so. "Could this-"

"Don't say it!" Brick pleaded in vain, but it was too late.

"-get any worse?"

 ***DING DING DING***

"Why yes, Staci, yes it can." Chris laughed, a familiar musical note symbol appearing in the top corner of the screen. "I trust you're all familiar with the singing from World Tour, correct?"

"I thought you said we were only doing them every other episode or so," Dave whined in frustration.

"Right you are." Chris chucked another stick of dynamite down for good measure, nearly hitting Team Old School's vehicle in the process. "Lucky for you guys we're on the second part of a two parter premier! So yeah, you better get to singing with your dodging. Make it something thematic to this icy location, gotta work with what you got am I right?"

There were a collections of groans and murmurs from the group of contestants, B in particular looking especially stressed. With a quick glance, Courtney could tell no one wanted to bite the bullet and start. Of course, that was perfectly fine with her.

"Well, I may as well get us started," she commented, trying to hide the bit of enjoyment she got from doing so.

* * *

A soft piano melody began to play as the three teams continued swerving away from the dynamite. Courtney had just done one such maneuver while delivering the song's first line. _"Gotta keep our cool against the dynamite. No time to cry or scream."_

Since his teammate had taken the lead, Trent decided to take the next part. _"Can't let it break your concentration, and get blown to smithereens."_

 _"Why did we sign up once again for a game where we could die?"_ Beth lamented in song form as she covered her ears.

 _"We could all be back home right now, safe and inside,"_ DJ added, using the cattle prod to cover his head as if it were some sort of shield.

Harold glanced up at the helicopter's position, doing his best to point directions out to the driver since he couldn't currently speak directions. _"I guess the money talks, still fame to seek, even if we risk becoming debris."_

Leshawna almost chuckled at the accuracy of Harold's observation, before a close by explosion made her go wide eyed. _"It's a raw deal, but what did we expect from this show?"_

Cody opened his mouth to sing the next line, but Izzy quickly beat him to it. _"Guess we reap what we soooooow!"_

She grinned at Cody, who sighed as he realized he had been left to start the chorus. _"But man this bloooows. This fricken blooooows. Why the heck did we come back for more?"_

With the groundwork laid, now the entirety of Team Old School sung together. _"Man this bloooows, this fricken bloooows. One wrong turn and we're done for!"_

The other two teams were impressed at how well Team Old School had taken the lead in singing, though to their credit many of them had experience from World Tour. Now it was time for one of them to pick up the mantle, and the first volunteer came as a surprise to some.

 _"We were all aware, this show ain't child's play,"_ Beardo bellowed in a surprisingly pleasant singing voice, those on his team not used to hearing him do anything other than make noises taken back by his outburst.

Sugar, not one to be upstaged, was the first on the team to recover and continue on. _"Well now the game goes on, no point cryin' over it anyway."_

As the teams continued juggling focus on both the song and avoiding explosions, they were slowly beginning to drift apart in varying directions. Almost as if the dynamite was herding them in which way to go. And by almost, it was definitely doing that. Meanwhile the music grew more upbeat as more instruments joined in.

 _"Let's hurry and gain more distance,"_ Shawn eventually continued, _"This won't be our downfall."_

 _"There's no way for us to foresee,"_ Jasmine added next since her boyfriend had just gone, _"What comes next, after all."_

Sammy was starting to feel a bit more motivated listening to the singing, avoiding another dynamite blast with ease. _"We can do this, won't go kaboom. Done this before, it's nothing new."_

Dave, meanwhile, wasn't feeling as confident as another blast made him jump back in fear. _"Still, you have to say this is crappy."_

 _"I agree,"_ Rodney chimed in when an explosion caused multiple chunks of ice to fly towards the snowmobile, all pelting the farmer due to his large frame.

 _"Man this blooooows, this fricken blooooows."_ Rodney had begun the chorus, but was noticeably having a hard time keeping focus when Amy sung it alongside him. She looked back at him with a sly grin, causing his face to turn a deep red. How he was somehow able to hold his singing given his speech track record in such situations was a mystery. _"Because we could still maybe diiiiie."_

 _"Man this bloooows, this fricken bloooows,"_ now sung the entirety of Team Explosive, with varying degrees of enthusiasm. _"We don't want to say goodbye."_

Now that the other two teams had all gone in one way or another, it was Team Radioactive's turn to step up to the plate. Of note, a nervous looking B was seemingly digging through his coat pocket for something. Meanwhile, Anne Maria was unsurprisingly the first to pipe up. _"I demand, we'll see another day."_

Her singing voice wasn't the most pleasant, but no one was about to tell her that. Scott seemingly grumbled something under his breath before reluctantly following up. _"That's the plan, moro-"_ before finishing the line he noticed Anne Maria giving him a stink eye, making him quickly clear his throat. _"Er, Anne!"_

She narrowed her eyes but backed away, Scott chuckling nervously while returning his focus to driving. Meanwhile the music hit its most triumphant tune, while the teams were now all separated quite a bit away thanks to the dynamite herding. Nonetheless, they somehow still all heard each other's singing.

 _"The ice could break, we'd fall in, and then we'd be drowned,"_ Brick lamented, lifting his arm up dramatically as he sung from the heart.

 _"Or be sent off an icy cliff down to our burial ground,"_ Dakota added, lifting her arm up in the opposite direction as Brick.

 _"Sha-just ignore the danger from all these big ol' blasts."_ Lightning posed behind Brick and Dakota, though he opted for a double arm flex rather than something more fitting.

 _"This danger's going nowhere. All we can do is go fast!"_ Staci completed the pose in front of the other three, hunched down with both arms outstretched.

Dawn gave B a quick glance, checking on how he was holding up. He was hunched over, frantically tinkering with something. He held up a finger to signify 'One more second,' so she nodded. Just had to buy him a little more time.

 _"Still this blooooows, this fricken blooooows,"_ Dawn continued, one of the few competitors relatively undeterred by the scattering dynamite. _"It's not time for us to begone."_

 _"Man this bloooows, this fricken blooooows,"_ sung the entirety of Team Radioactive, minus B. Many teammates were giving the silent genius looks of concern as they knew the song was quickly coming to an end. _"But it's nothing we can't take on."_

 _"This will not be our doomsday,"_ now sung the entirety of the cast, once again minus B. _"Now the game goes ooooooon."_

Suddenly, B breathed a sign of relief and held up what he had been tinkering with. It was a small device, shaped like a box and looking like it was made out of scrap. On the back of the device was a small circular speaker, and on the front the keypad that one would have seen on an old flip phone.

B quickly typed away on the keypad, prompting an electronic voice to bellow from the speaker. _"NO POINT CRYIN' OVER IT ANYWAY."_

* * *

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Time out." Chris looked down in befuddlement from the helicopter currently positioned over Team Radioactive. "What the heck was that?"

"B made that device during the plane ride here using the spare parts in the cargo area," Dawn explained, B showing off his invention to his team proudly. "It allows him to produce singing despite not speaking himself."

"Well that's cheating," Chris complained from overhead, eyes narrowed. "It wasn't really him singing then, now was it?"

"Actually, there's nothing in the contract that specifies that the singing MUST be through your own voice," Brick pointed out. "B is still the one producing the singing, he has to type it all into his doohickey and everything. So technically, it is still him creating the music."

Chris held up a finger, but paused before saying anything. He pulled a copy of the contract from his back pocket and gave it a quick scan. Eventually he face palmed, Chef chuckling in the pilot's seat next to him.

"Guess they've got you there, eh McLean?"

The host glared and pouted, crossing his arms in annoyance. "Fine, whatever, I'll allow it.

 ***** Confessional: B *****

B spun the device on his finger, using his other hand to flash the camera a finger pistol.

 ***** In Antarctica *****

"So, what, now the big guy can actually talk to us from now on?" Anne Maria asked, reaching to touch B's invention only for the silent genius to tuck it back into his jacket pocket.

"I'm afraid not," Dawn answered. "From what I understand, it's not the most durable piece of technology since it was made from spare junk in the Jumbo Jet. B only intends to use it for the required singing so as to not risk it malfunctioning when he needs it."

"Smart thinking." Staci leaned forward, earning an annoyed look from some teammates. "It reminds me about the time my great great great great uncle Gonzalo invented the speaker. Yah, before him-"

"Not to interrupt or anything," Scott said from the driver seat, looking around. "But uh, is it me or are the other two teams nowhere to be seen?"

Sure enough, the former villain's observation was spot on. From what they could see, there was no sign of the other two teams. Just ice, ice, and more ice as far as the eye could see.

"Weird." Dakota looked behind them, still seeing no other signs of life. "Wonder where everyone went."

As it turned out, the other teams were making the same realization. Or as one such contestant so eloquently put it...

"Where in the Sam Hill did them other buncha losers run off too?" Sugar scanned the frozen tundra, wondering how they had so quickly been separated from the others when they were just all neck and neck. Her teammates were all just gathering their bearings, while Beardo provided the sound of a steam locomotive as their snowmobile powered along.

"I guess we all got separated during that song," Shawn observed, peeking over their ride to make sure it hadn't sustained any damage. "We were all so distracted we just didn't notice that we got split up."

"Chris must have used the dynamite to herd us away from each other," Jasmine added. "Like we said, it would have been boring if we were neck and neck the whole race so they needed to get us away somehow."

Dave peered down at the GPS, frowning as he read the directions. "Yeah, we definitely got sent off course quite a bit. If we want to get to the South Pole as fast as possible we're going to have to go through some pretty rough terrain."

Raising an eyebrow at that comment, Amy smirked and hugged Rodney around the neck. "You'll hold on to me in case things get too bumpy, right Rodney?" she asked in a whisper. The lumbering farm boy babbled his usual gibberish in response. Sugar couldn't help but notice the display, chuckling to herself.

 ***** Confessional: Sugar *****

"Heh, that Amy's a willy one. She's playing ol' Rodney like he's uncle Billy Bob's banjo." She rubbed her chin in thought. "Maybe it wouldn't be a half bad idea to team up with her later. Too many goodie two shoes on our team, may be good fur the both of us if we stuck together."

 ***** In Antarctica *****

Meanwhile with Team Old School, Harold looked on at the GPS in annoyance. "GOSH, we're way off course now."

"Relax, sugar, if we're off course that means the other teams are too," Leshawna pointed out, wincing when they drove over a bumpy bit of ice. "We all knew Chris wasn't gonna let this be too easy. Just keep your eye on the GPS, we'll get there."

The nerd nodded at his crush, pointing out the direction for Courtney to continue down. Meanwhile, Izzy dangerously balanced her cattle prod on the tip of her finger, getting a worried look from DJ in the process.

"Izzy, you gotta be careful with that thing," the brickhouse pleaded. "You're gonna get one of us hurt."

"No worries, big guy. Izzy always has everything under control." As if on cue, right after saying as much Izzy fumbled her cattle prod, accidentally turning it on in the process and almost allowing it to come shocking down on Cody's head. Thankfully for the geek, she regained hold of it at the last moment and smiled. "See? No problemo!"

Cody and Trent exchanged an uncertain look, trying to keep the near electrocution out of mind. In front of them Beth had been looking back to observe the scene. When she turned around, she noticed another sign of life quickly approaching the snowmobile. A small adorable seal, spotted like a leopard.

"Aww, look at the little seal," Beth cooed, reaching her hand out to pet the animal as they drove by. However once they were close enough, the seal leaped at her hand, munching down with deceptively sharp teeth. Beth's yell of shock and pain distracted the others long enough for an entire platoon of seals to pop up out of seemingly nowhere, all launching themselves at Team Old School with teeth at the ready. There were varying degrees of distress being expressed by the team, with the exception of Izzy who found the spectacle fun.

"Why are these things so aggressive?" Trent asked, flailing his arm around like a madman to shake off the seal attached.

"Leopard seals are one of the fiercest predators in the continent," Harold explained, ducking in the nick of time to avoid a leaping seal, only for a second seal to latch itself to his head. "I guess these are what we're supposed to use the prods on?"

"We are NOT electrocuting a bunch of cute animals!" DJ was insistent, despite having three different seals attached to his arms. Since he had stood up to make this retort, a fourth seal took the opportunity to latch its teeth to his posterior, prompting the largest scream from the cast yet. To her credit, Courtney was doing the best she could to drive away from the madness, trying to ignore the pain from the two seals biting down on her.

"Hopefully this at least means the other teams are having a hard time with the wildlife too," Cody suggested hopefully, notably covering his crotch for protection as more seals zeroed in on them.

A cut back to Team Radioactive proved that indeed they were having animal troubles of our own. Though in their case rather than seals, they were dealing with being at a full stop while a seemingly endless horde of penguins waddled across the ice in front of them.

"Where is the dang horn on this thing?" Scott asked, pushing down on the wheel in vain despite it producing no sound. "Come on, let's move it along already!"

"Have patience," Dawn suggested, gently stroking the head of a penguin before it walked off happily. "These beautiful creatures are merely trying to reach their destination together. If we disturb them with yelling and honking that would only make them take longer."

Anne Maria tapped her fingers along the side of the snowmobile, rolling her eyes. "Yeah, well patience ain't exactly what we got when we're in the middle of a race. Yo, Dakota? Think you could turn all huge and just carry us over the penguins?"

Dakota sheepishly looked away. "Well I'm not really angry right now, so I wouldn't be able to turn into Dakotazoid. But even still, I get kinda out of control when I turn into it, I wouldn't want to accidentally hurt one of the penguins in the process."

Lightning suddenly seemed to be hit with inspiration, jumping from out of his seat. "Sha-forget that noise anyway, Lightning can carry this thing himself. Everybody out and let Lightning do his stuff."

Since there was nothing else they could really do anyway, his teammates went along with it and got off. Lightning rubbed his hands together, reached down, grabbed the snowmobile... then proceeded to huff as he merely lifted one wheel of the device a bit off the ice. He strained as he did his best to get the job done, but he clearly couldn't fully lift the large vehicle on his own.

Eventually, Brick decided to jump into the fray. Getting on the side opposite of Lightning, he lifted at the same time, causing the back half of the vehicle to be lifted successfully. Lightning seemed conflicted, both annoyed and glad to see it up. "Hmph, that only worked because Lightning loosened it up for you."

Brick merely grinned, looking over at his teammates. "A few more hands on deck and we should be able to do this, come on soldiers!"

Scott sighed, but played along by taking a spot at the front of the snowmobile. Anne Maria stood on the opposite side, and with their combined lifting the full vehicle was off the ground. Dakota and B also stepped in to give the lift some extra muscle, making it easier on everyone. Meanwhile Dawn worked to make sure the penguins were waddling around their path, that way none of them were in danger of being hurt. Staci tried her best to assist Dawn, though she didn't really do anything while the moonchild did all the work clearing the critters.

 ***** Confessional: Lightning *****

"Sha-for the record, Lightning could have carried that hunk of metal himself easy. He just couldn't get a good grip out there because the cold made it all slippery. That's all." He folded his arms and puffed out his chest defiantly, fully convincing himself that what he was saying was true.

 ***** Somewhere in Antarctica *****

Like the other teams, Team Explosive was having their share of animal problems. In this case, a flock of black-browed albatross had taken to flying around their heads, pecking at their faces. Shawn was eventually able to make them disperse, waving his jacket around at them with calls of "Shoo, shoo," until they finally left.

"You'd think the wildlife wouldn't be so aggressive here," the zombie nut noted, putting his jacket back on and getting a tight embrace from his girlfriend to warm him back up. "Birds like that usually stay near the water where their prey is."

"If I had to guess Chris probably has a hand in making them more feisty," Jasmine suggested. "Or maybe they're mechanical like the ones from back at Pahkitew?"

"Robot or not, they're disgusting," Dave complained from his seat, trying to focus on the GPS' rerouted directions to take his mind off the gross birds. "Now lets see, if we keep right that should eventually get us back on path and it'll be a straight shot to the-" He paused, as a new symbol popped up on the GPS. A red circle showing a monstrous face within. "What the heck?"

"Something wrong?" Sammy asked curiously.

"Some weird symbol just popped up on the GPS. No idea what it means, though."

Immediately on cue to answer the confusion, a loud roar echoed from over the horizon. With a glance down at the device, Dave could confirm that the direction the sound had come from was the same direction as the symbol.

"Right, so, we're gonna want to avoid whatever that is," the germaphobe said in a panicked tone. "Go left."

Sammy nodded and quickly changed directions. But soon after she did so, a new roar echoed from nearby, this one towards the new direction. Many looked over Dave's shoulder as another one of the monster symbols popped up on the GPS... and then another one. And another one. Soon, they were practically surrounded by the symbols, and a chorus and terrible noises circled around Team Explosive.

"That can't be good," Rodney said to voice the obvious as the team looked around in concern and fear.

Elsewhere, Anne Maria raised an eyebrow and looked back. Her team had since successfully carried their snowmobile past the horde of penguins and were back on track to driving to their destination. However, the distant sound of a roar concerned her. "Hey, did any of you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Dakota asked, though before the Jersey girl could answer they were interrupted by the team's navigator.

"That's strange, something on the GPS just popped up." Dawn's observation got her team's attention, the driver included.

"Wadda ya mean popped up?" Scott asked curiously. "This something I should be avoiding?"

One of the loud monstrous roars echoed from ahead, startling most of Team Radioactive. Brick in particular shook like a leaf as he peered from behind the seat in front of him cautiously.

"I'm gonna say that's a yes." The cadet peered over at Dawn. "What's the best way for us to go to avoid that thing?"

Suddenly a white furry paw came crashing down on the snowmobile, stopping it dead in its tracks. Multiple figures then quickly surrounded the vehicle. The GPS was now beeping rapidly to signify the snowmobile was surrounded, though it was obviously too late.

One of the beasts roared, finally giving a good look at them. They were big ape like creatures, bearing a striking resemblance to Sasquatchanakwa. Though they had white fur rather than the usual purple. When the camera pulled back it showed that this particular beast wasn't roaring at Team Explosive, but instead Team Old School who were all screaming in fear. Courtney did her best to maneuver around the imposing beast, but more of them seemed to be popping up left and right.

"Man, those yetis sure are angry," Chris said from the safety of the helicopter while observing the carnage below. "Wouldn't want to be those kids right now."

"Aren't those things just pissed because you imported them from their home in Siberia?" Chef shot back while piloting the helicopter, not seeing the annoyed glare Chris gave in response. "And why are there so dang many of them anyway?"

The host shrugged innocently. "What can I say, things must get boring when you live in an icy wasteland. Guess they have the rabbit mentality of what to do to pass the time."

Back with Team Old School, it was becoming harder and harder to avoid the wrath of the yetis. For the time being, Courtney had given up trying to listen to any of Harold's directions since the current objective was simply to survive. Her driving proved competent, but they were up against a significant number.

As the rest of the team went through varying degrees of panic, baring Izzy who seemed to be living for this insanity, Cody was suddenly hit with a realization. "Ok, so THIS is definitely what those cattle prods are going to come in handy for." He glanced at DJ, who had just cowered away from the paw swipe of a yeti. "Do you have anything against us using them on these things too?"

"I mean, I'd definitely prefer NOT to," the brickhouse answered, yelping as another yeti roared as they drove by. "But I care more about us not dying right now, so I got no objections."

Since no one else on the team was opposed to using their part one advantage, everyone other than Courtney wielded their cattle prods and swung back at the aggressive beasts. Leshawna was the first to land a successful blow, shocking one of the yetis in the gut and making it keel over in the process. Trent landed a blow on another's leg, causing the furry beast to trip in pain. Beth very nearly hit one of the males in the groin, which was enough to make it guard itself and jump back from fear alone.

"It's working!" Trent grinned as he fended back yet another approaching yeti with a well placed bop on the head. "They can't touch us as long as we have these!"

No one seemed to be having more fun with their fight against the yetis than Izzy, who had been wailing her prod around like a madwoman. Seeing another one of the creatures approaching from her side of the snowmobile, she grinned and positioned her weapon like a baseball bat. "Izzy's going for style points on this one! Baaaaaatter up!"

Izzy swung with all her might as if she were going for a homerun and the yeti was a particularly large and furry ball. However, the beast thought quickly and ducked out of the way midswing. Then in what felt like the blink of an eye it chomped down on the shaft of the prod, breaking it into pieces.

 ***** Confessional: Izzy *****

"Alright, did NOT see that one coming," she said with a rare somewhat serious and surprised look. This then quickly reverted back to her usual smiling self. "Maybe I should have gone for something like a golf swing instead? Oh, no no, I could have used it like a cricket bat! Next time, Izzy, next time."

 ***** Somewhere in Antarctica *****

The remaining members of Team Old School were taken by surprise seeing Izzy's cattle prod be demolished like it was nothing. Unfortunately for them, the quick distraction was all the other yetis needed to make their move. One by one, they all targeted the other member's weapons. Some merely had to yank it from their hand, like with Harold and Beth. Others also resorted to the biting the shaft tactic for those with a tighter grip like Leshawna. Once it was said and done, all seven of the non drivers had lost their cattle prods one way or another.

"Ok, so uh... now what?" Cody asked when he was the last to have his prod disposed of.

All eyes turned to Courtney, who looked back and steeled herself. "We get the heck out of here as quick as possible."

With another rev of the snowmobile, Courtney kept as focused as she could while continuing to swerve around the aggressive yetis. Their line of defense was gone, but they seemed to be leaving the area where the yetis were running rampant. The same couldn't be said for Team Explosive, who were having a hell of a time trying to avoid the yeti onslaught. Being a less experienced driver than someone like Courtney, Sammy wasn't maneuvering the vehicle with as much calm finesse. Her steering made the others sway wildly from side to side, and the navigator wasn't much help since Dave had essentially turned into a cowering ball of panic that was guarding his face with one hand and keeping himself from falling out of the vehicle with the other.

Beardo had taken to providing a panicked mayday alarm sound effect, while Amy glared at her sister from the back. "Sparemey, are you TRYING to get us killed? I always knew you were a bad driver, but this really takes the cake."

"This is SO not the time for this, Amy," her twin spat back, keeping her eyes on the lack of road and trying her best to keep composed. Which is to say, she wasn't very composed at all.

Meanwhile, Shawn and Jasmine had taken it upon themselves to do their best to protect the snowmobile. Jasmine's long limbs made it possible to push and shove the beasts out of the way from a somewhat safe distance, while Shawn was using more unconventional means like tossing sand he had in one pocket for some reason right into a yeti's eyes. They were fending them off well enough, but between the erratic driving and the yeti's sizable numbers, it was clear that they'd eventually be overwhelmed.

"Darn it, if only we had won those cattle prods," the zombie nut lamented, chopping one of the yetis in the neck at the last minute before it came chomping down on Rodney. "We gotta find a way to get them off our tail for good."

Rubbing her chin in thought, Sugar was suddenly hit with an idea. "I might be able to cook up enough gas to get them varmints away from us polecat style!" She jutted her butt towards the oncoming yetis to prove her point, though for now she held her fire.

"Ew, and knock all of us out in the process?" Dave looked back in sheer disgust. "No way!"

"Actually, it's not the worst idea," Jasmine admitted, though the look on her face made it seem that she didn't enjoy saying as much. "If it works for skunks, it may just be the way to get these things off our tail."

"You're actually humoring this?"

While a debate began breaking out over the validity of Sugar's fart plan, another contestant took notice of the now more rapidly approaching yetis. With people distracted by the argument, they were going to close in fast. Action had to be taken, even if they were scared. Taking a deep breath, they ducked down and covered their mouth.

Suddenly, a loud and horrific screech echoed around the group. The yetis screeched to a halt, looking around in confusion at the sound. When it happened again, it was more identifiable to the others as the sound Godzilla's roar made. Though to the yetis it actually sounded like some other large predator was approaching from out of nowhere. This was made even more realistic when what sounded like giant footsteps echoed around them, mixed with the roars. Looking panicked, one last roar sent the yetis running as far away from the noises as they could get.

When it was all said and done, the yetis were cleared out, and Team Explosive looked on at Beardo who had only just stopped the noises once the coast was clear.

"Whoa..." Rodney whispered, surprise in his tone visible.

"Dude." Shawn grinned, patting Beardo on the back. "That was awesome!"

"Way to think on your feet, mate," Jasmine agreed with a nod. "That really got us out of a jam there."

The team all murmured agreeing sentiments, even Sugar despite her being disappointed that her unique method was no longer needed. Beardo, meanwhile, went from looking nervous at how his team would react to shock at the praise.

 ***** Confessional: Beardo *****

"I... actually contributed," he whispered in his first non singing line of the season, looking at the camera with that same shocked expression. That shock quickly turned to glee as he pumped his arm and made a cha ching cash register sound effect for emphasis. "Heck yeah! First step to turning things around for me this season. Next step... actually having a conversation with one of these guys without the sound effects."

 ***** Somewhere in Antarctica *****

Team Radioactive were giving a mix of screams and cries as the yeti horde honed in on them. Everyone was doing the best they could to break through, be it through muscle like with Lightning, or be it spraying them in the eyes with hairspray like Anne Maria. However, the efforts weren't enough, and Scott wasn't able to budge the snowmobile since the mass of hair and teeth had effectively brought them to a halt.

"Can't you talk to these things or something?" Scott asked desperately, looking over at Dawn with wide eyes. "These things count as animals, don't they?"

"I can try," the mystic responded, trying her best to stay calm in the increasingly frightening situation. "I sense that they're angry due to being forced far away from their home, so perhaps reasoning with them based on that will help."

One of the yetis was holding the front of the snowmobile, ensuring that the contestants could go nowhere. Dawn leaned forward, talking in a soothing tone. "Excuse me, Mr. Yeti? We're very sorry that awful man has taken you so far away from your home. I'm sure they'll have to return you all as soon as this challenge is over. If you could please let us go, we'll try to have it finished as soon as possible."

The creature titled his head, surprised by the girl's calming voice and pleasant smile. It seemed like it was beginning to smile in understanding... only to growl twice as loud in Dawn's face, shocking her back into her seat before it could bite her.

"It was a valiant effort, soldier," Brick offered, Dawn still reeling from the yeti not even flinching at her kindness. "Though that being said, looks like we're dead."

Indeed, the yetis had caused such a blockade that everyone had to bunch together to avoid being mauled.

"This is so unfair, I can't die yet." Staci sobbed as she hung to B's arm from desperate fear. "I was going to become a cook, just like my great great great great-"

As B's expression turned from one worried about the yetis to one annoyed at Staci, Lightning's hand covered the liar's mouth. "The Lightning is NOT in the mood to hear chatty girls blabbing right now."

Seemingly in slow motion, one of the yetis began reaching for Anne Maria. Dakota watched next to her, shaking from the panic. Was this really it? It would all end by being mauled to death on some stupid TV show in the middle of Antarctica? But then she realized something. If she ended up mauled, how sad would her daddy be? The rest of her family? How sad would Sam be? And it would all be Chris' fault too. Thinking this over, her fear turned to annoyance. And the annoyance turned to anger. And with the anger began a transformation.

"You... guys... need... to... back... OFF!"

Suddenly, the dogpile of yetis was sent scattering away, many being knocked a good distance and suffering from unfortunate landing positions. When the pile was cleared, out emerged a new hulking figure. Dakota had increased in size significantly, and spikes jutted out from her shoulders and elbows. Her skin turned into a dark orange while her hair became a radioactive waste-like green. Heck, even a tail had sprouted. She had gone full Dakotazoid, though her jumpsuit lived up to its purpose and still fit her perfectly with no rips.

The yetis were understandably dumbfounded at the sudden emergence of a new foe. Unfortunately for them, Dakotazoid wasn't waiting around for them to better understand. She grabbed the nearest beast by the feet and tossed him into a group of others, knocking them down like bowling pins. She punched, kicked, slashed, and threw her way out of the chaos, until eventually a single cowering yeti was left standing. Desperately inching away as Dakotazoid approached, he flinched when she got in his face, but opened an eye when nothing happened.

"Boo." The mutant grinned as the final yeti screamed and ran away in fear. Team Radioactive erupted into cheers and praises for Dakotazoid saving the day. The overwhelming positivity was enough to bring Dakota out of her angry state and shrink back down to normal size.

Eventually she had reverted to the relatively normal state she entered the season as, with Anne Maria being the first to congratulate her. "Dang, you really showed those fuzzballs what's what."

"Oh it was nothing," Dakota replied, blushing at the praise. "I'm kind of embarrassed you guys had to see me become Dakotazoid so seen, honestly."

"Nothing to be ashamed of, we'd have been yeti food without your help." Brick saluted his teammate. "I'm sure we all appreciate the assistance."

As it turned out, Dawn was the only team member that didn't seem entirely stoked by what had happened. She glanced over at Scott, who had been caught up on the commending Dakota train. "Shouldn't we be getting back to driving?"

Scott shook himself back into the game and fired up the snowmobile once again.

 ***** Confessional: Dawn *****

"I don't entirely agree with Dakota's methods of getting us to safety. Of course, we did need out of the situation, but did she have to be so violent towards those creatures? Then again, one of them nearly bit my head off so I suppose it couldn't be helped."

 ***** Near the South Pole *****

Team Radioactive continued their pursuit to the end, Dawn doing her best to guide Scott on the fastest route. Soon they found themselves going up a particularly tall ice cap, where the South Pole was supposed to be on the other side. The farmer was grinning in determination as he drove, only to have his concentration broke when he heard a certain voice.

"Oh great, what are THEY doing here too?"

Scott looked to his left to see the voice's source. Courtney, driving the snowmobile for her own team, now neck and neck with them.

"Looks like somehow we've all met back up again."

Both teams looked to the right, the new voice coming from Sammy who now had Team Explosive's snowmobile neck and neck with the others as well. All three teams reached the top of the ice cap, and below they could see Chris standing next to a metal pole. A sign behind it even listed "Geographic South Pole," to confirm this was their finish line. On both sides of the pole were a marker where one of their team flags could be planted.

"Wow, hey, all three teams are in the final stretch at the same time! What are the odds?" Chris laughed, his voice being heard by everyone thanks to his megaphone. "This should be easy enough, first two team flags that get planted next to the South Pole means those teams are safe. The team that comes up short is sending someone packing. First team to do it gets first class, so lets see some hustle, people!"

The three teams all looked from the competition to the pole. It was anyone's game now, with no time to lose. Revving up his snowmobile, Scott took the early lead with Courtney and Sammy hot on his tail.

"Ha, see you guys at the finish line!"

Unfortunately for Scott, his taunting would be his undoing. Courtney grit her teeth, now aiming for Team Radioactive's snowmobile rather than the straight shot to the end. She rammed into the back of their vehicle, shocking the enemy team.

"Sha-watch where you're driving!" Lightning shook a fist at Team Old School, only for Courtney to ram into them again. She eventually found herself next to Team Radioactive, and proceeded to swerve into them, sending them both off course.

"What in tarnation are they doing?" Sugar asked, puzzled as Team Explosive looked on at the other two teams going away from the path to the pole.

"Whatever it is, it's good news for us," Shawn answered, pointing ahead to the south pole. "Everyone lean forward!"

The team did as he had instructed. Since they had some of the heaviest members of the cast on the team, it helped propel them forward all the more quick. Thanks to the other two teams being distracted, they reached the bottom of the ice cap and made it to the south pole with relative ease. They all jumped off the snowmobile, and Rodney retrieved their team flag from the back. He planted Team Explosive's flag proudly into one of the markers, getting cheers from everyone.

"And Team Explosive cruises into a win," Chris announced, cheers continuing among the victors. Beardo even did a perfect recreation of the Final Fantasy victory jingle once he realized he wouldn't be first one out again. "Congrats, guys, first class is yours."

Meanwhile, Teams Old School and Radioactive were still swerving wildly all over the place, with Scott and Courtney butting heads as neither was able to get away from the other. The rest of their teams all looked on with wide eyes, unable to do much to stop the scuffle.

"Team Explosive won the challenge, guys," Chris announced via megaphone, getting everyone's attention. "Now it's a race for not last!"

Courtney had finally been shaken from her rage at the announcement. Grunting in frustration, she glared over at Scott. "We are NOT losing to him!"

Then it hit her. Looking down next to her, she saw something she had forgot about. Her cattle prod. Since she was driving, she didn't use hers during the yeti attacks. Everyone else had their's destroyed, but her's was still intact. With one hand on the wheel, she grabbed it with the other and grinned devilishly.

"Lean back, Harold," she warned. "I'm going to get us to safety."

A bit confused, Harold looked over at the other team, then at Courtney's cattle prod. He went wide eyed, gasping in realization. "You're not really going to use that on him, are you?"

"I said lean back!" Momentarily letting go of the wheel, Courtney used one arm to push Harold back into his seat. Then with the other, she used pinpoint precision to jab Scott in the side with her cattle prod. As expected, the sudden jolt of electricity caused the dirt farmer pain and made him wildly spin out his team's snowmobile. Courtney's teammates were shocked, but there wasn't any arguing to be done as she was finally able to let them pull ahead.

Eventually they made it to the south pole, with DJ doing the honors of planting their flag in the other marker. Chris blew his air horn, signaling the end of the challenge. "And with that, Team Old School secures their safety. No first class, but they won't be sending someone home today. Unfortunately for Team Radioactive, the same can't be said for them."

Nearby, Team Radioactive groaned. Both from the loss, but also recovering from the dizziness caused by the spin out. Scott in particularly was looking rough after suffering the blow from the cattle prod.

 ***** Confessional: Courtney *****

The former CIT looked on at the camera, with what looked like remorse in her eyes. "Do I feel bad for being the one to cost Scott and his team the win, probably sending him packing in the process?" There was a short pause, only for the seemingly remorseful look to turn into one of indifference. She shrugged innocently. "Eh, not really."

 ***** On the Jumbo Jet *****

The teams had finally returned to the less chilly climate of the jet. Team Old School took their place in economy class, regrouping after avoiding elimination but also failing to win. Much of Team Explosive went straight for their well earned first class experience, though Shawn, Jasmine, and Sammy chose to do one of Shawn's zombie checks in the cargo area. Had they not lost Dawn, B, and Brick would have joined them, but for now everyone on Team Radioactive had gathered in the dining area. Unsurprisingly, a lot of nasty looks were being sent Scott's way.

"Ok, I know what happened out there looked bad, but it wasn't my fault!" Scott pleaded with his teammates, knowing fully well he was being sized up for the chopping block. "Courtney was the one who started that, I had nothing to do with it!"

"Maybe she wouldn't had done it if you hadn't opened your yap and gloated," Anne Maria pointed out, glaring at the devious former villain.

"And even if you couldn't help it, if that's how Courtney is going to keep reacting with you around it makes you a liability," Dakota added, arms crossed. "It's not like we can really trust you after season 4 anyway."

"That was years ago," Scott yelled, flabbergasted. "I've changed! Did I not help us almost win part 1? Didn't I do a perfectly fine job driving us to the end before Courtney went crazy on us?"

"And just who do you think should go home if it ain't you, hm?" Anne Maria challenged, eyebrow raised. It was then that a gurgle was heard from Staci's stomach. She blushed and smiled innocently.

"Whoops, I'll be right back!" She ran off, heading for the toilet. "When I get back I'll let you know about my great great aunt Harper that invented the toilet!"

Once the compulsive liar had left the room and was out of earshot, Scott motioned his arms the way she had went. "Well, her. She didn't do anything to help today and hasn't really done anything but annoy us with her lies. Unlike me, she really HASN'T changed since our first season.

Dakota rolled her eyes, beginning to storm off. "Convenient that you waited to throw her under the bus AFTER she left the room. Somehow I doubt that you've really changed at all."

Anne Maria followed after her, a similar disgusted expression in her eyes. The others began to follow before Scott ran in front and stopped them.

"Come on guys, have a heart!" He looked at all of them pleadingly, cupping his hands in a begging motion. "Do you not believe in second chances and junk? I busted my butt out there to be a 'team player' today, the least you guys could do is give me a chance."

Dawn and B exchanged a look of uncertainty. Brick rubbed the back of his head, looking on awkwardly in thought. Lightning just crossed his arms, unimpressed with the whole thing. Eventually an announcement came from over the intercom, courtesy of Chris.

"Voting time, Team Radioactive! Make your way to the confessional one at a time and stamp the passport of who you want gone, then report to the elimination area. Time for our first elimination of the season!"

 ***** In the Elimination Area *****

The eight members of Team Radioactive shuffled into the bleachers of the elimination area. Chris stood at his podium, holding a plate of seven peanut filled barf bags. Chef stood nearby, holding a parachute that would inevitably go to the loser.

"The results of the vote are in," Chris declared, holding up the eight stamped passports while not yet revealing their results within. "When I call you name, you're safe and you get a nice barfy symbol of immunity." He held up one of the barf bags to prove the point. "So with that all said, the first one safe is Dakota since she pretty much saved you all from being maimed."

Dakota smiled, gladly catching her barf bag of immunity.

"Lightning and Brick, you guys are obviously safe since your muscle came in handy. Dawn is safe since her animal talking helped out with some penguins."

The three all caught their respective bags with varying degrees of gratitude and confidence.

"B's ingenuity against the singing handicap nets him safety. Aaaand, Anne Maria did some useful things with that hair spray, so she's in the clear," Chris finished, tossing the penultimate barf bags to the silent genius and Jersey girl. He merely accepted it with a glad nod, while she had a smug smirk while glancing down at Scott. Scott was wide eyed and shaking, not confident in his chances of stay. Staci didn't look much better since she was well aware this was her fate the last time she had played the game.

"Scott, you're here because your team doesn't know if they can trust you. Also your baggage with Courtney is already starting to bite you in the butt." The host chuckled, relishing in the farmer's distress. "Staci, you're here because you're still as annoying and chatty as you were last time."

The bottom two exchanged nervous looks, then stared on at the final peanut filled barf bag in Chris' hand.

"Only one of you gets to stay for a second chance, and that person is...

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

... Scott!"

At first Scott gasped, not reacting as the peanut bag hit him in the face and fell to the floor. But after the realization hit, he took a big sigh of relief, wiping the sweat away from his forehead. Anne Maria and Dakota looked especially annoyed at the outcome, while Staci just frowned in disappointment.

"Aw man, first one out again?" Staci hung her head in shame, accepting the parachute as Chef pushed it into her arms. "Well, guess it's the drop of shame for me."

"Kinda, but not quite." Chris grinned, leading Staci over to the now open hatch. "It's a new season after all, we have to shake up the elimination method somehow!"

"How do you shake up falling out of a-" Staci was cut off as an over-sized boot came swinging down from the ceiling, hitting her straight in the face. The blow hit her out of the hatch, sending her outside as her scream echoed.

"Glad you asked! We call it the Boot of Shame, ya never know when it'll kick you out once you're eliminated, ya just know it's coming." Chris looked back at the remaining members of Team Radioactive, all of whom seemed less than impressed. "What? There's only so much you can do to shake up being pushed out of a plane. Now get outta here before one of you join Staci."

As the team filed out, outside of the plane Staci clung to the wing in an all too familiar sight despite having her parachute on. "I changed my mind, I don't wanna go home yet! I gotta stay in the game, otherwise it would disappoint my great great-"

Once again Staci was interrupted when the wing of the plane momentarily became electrified. The sudden shock made her release her grip, causing her to plummet to the ground below. Chris watched this all from the plane, smiling as he watched Staci fall.

"Yeah, we are NOT having another Ezekiel situation this season. We came prepared this time." He laughed in satisfaction, giving the camera his trademark grin. "And with that, we have our first elimination! Can Scott win the trust of his teammates? Can him and Courtney sort out this dirty laundry of their's? Will Shawn ever actually find a zombie in the cargo hold? And who will be the next to taste the Boot of Shame? At least one of these questions answered right here, next time on TOTAL... DRAMA... BATTLE OF THE GENERATIONS!"

 **Voting Confessionals:**

Anne Maria stamped Scott's passport with no hesitation. "Is chatterbox kind of annoying? Yeah, but she ain't no sleazeball like Scotty boy. I can't trust that guy as far as I can throw him, so he can take a hike for all I care.

B hovered his stamp right above Scott's passport. He grit his teeth, his arm shaking as he nearly made the vote. Eventually he sighed, turning to instead stamp Staci's passport. He then held up Scott's passport and used two fingers to point to his eyes then the camera in an 'I'm watching you' motion.

"I've always been a strong believer in second chances, and if I'm being honest Scott was a stand up teammate in this challenge. If he really has turned over a new leaf, then I support him entirely." Brick stamped Staci's passport. "Sorry soldier, it's nothing personal."

Dakota frowned as she stamped Scott's passport. "They should have brought back Sam instead of you. I'm not going to let myself get angry over it, since that would be kinda bad for the plane, but seriously. Who asked for more Scott?"

"I'm just as surprised as anyone that I'm actually saying this, but... I do want to give Scott a chance to prove he's redeemed himself. I sense a genuine change in his aura from the last time we met. Granted, there's still plenty of negative aspects to it that I sense, but the change is definitely there." Dawn stamped Staci's passport without even looking at it. "I sense nothing but pain for Staci if she were to stay in the game, so this is for the best anyway."

Lightning tossed the stamp in the air and caught it in a cool gesture. "Lightning don't care about all this 'another chance' crap, he just cares who's a better teammate. Smelly boy did just fine today, blabby girl did nothing." He stamped Staci's passport a few times. "Some of these chumps are mad that Scott eliminated them back in season 4, but you know who he didn't eliminate? Sha-Lightning!"

"Look, this isn't anything personal or something like that, eliminating Staci is just my best bet for staying in the game." Scott stamped Staci's passport. "Let's just hope these guys aren't THAT serious about holding a grudge. Like seriously, that season was ages ago, haven't I paid for it enough already?"

"I don't really like Scott and Anne Maria told me we needed to vote him out so I'm all for it." Staci stamped Scott's passport happily, then looked over the stamp curiously. "Oh, did you know the inventor of the stamp was actually my great great great great uncle Duane? Yah, before him people had nothing nice to put on their letters, it was so sad."

Votes for Staci: 5 (B, Brick, Dawn, Lightning, Scott)

Votes for Scott: 3 (Anne Maria, Dakota, Staci)

 **After the Boot of Shame:**

Staci struggle to make sure her parachute was safely secured, but eventually pulled it off. Somehow there was a camera following her as she made her descent, and she wasted no time deploying the parachute to ensure that she wouldn't splat on to the Antarctic ice below.

"I can't believe I'm the first one out again! I thought I was gonna go all the way to the end this time." Looking up at her parachute, she sighed. "Maybe I should have been more ambitious like my great great great second cousin Francois. He invented the parachute, you know. Before him if someone fell out of an airplane they would just hit the ground and die. Yah, he was pretty important."

Staci eventually made it to the ground... right in the middle of one of the yeti packs. All of the beasts turned their heads to her, growling and showing their teeth as they recognized her from the group that had that mutant who beat them up.

"U-um, would you nice yetis like to hear some stories about my ancestors?" She chuckled nervously, turning into a scream when the yetis pounced towards her before the camera shut off.

 **Remaining Contestants:**

Team Old School: Beth, Cody, Courtney, DJ, Harold, Izzy, Leshawna, Trent

Team Radioactive: Anne Maria, B, Brick, Dakota, Dawn, Lightning, Scott

Team Explosive: Amy, Beardo, Dave, Jasmine, Rodney, Sammy, Shawn, Sugar

 **Elimination Order:**

24th: Staci

 **Author's Note:**

 _Well well well, looks like we can finally get this show on the road. Now obviously I need to address how long this chapter took to put out, but I'm gonna save that part for the end. I deliberately left the first chapter without an author's note, so with this being the first we obviously have a lot to touch on. Thus I'll keep the hiatus as the final subject we cover. With that being said, let's jump right into it._

 _So now that we've got the ball rolling proper, with the two part "premier" of the story done and the first elimination passed. I've had the idea for this story brewing for longer than I'd like to admit, so I hope it's been enjoyable thus far. With a comp fic like this I think the obvious first thing to talk about is the cast, so let's start there. First I'll touch on Team Radioactive since they're the only team that hasn't changed since the story was thought up. It was always going to have the six that didn't make it to All Stars, which left me two male spots for characters that WERE in All Stars. Mike and Cameron were easy to write off, they've had more than enough screentime, their storylines ended, are both former potential winners, and most of all their reputation in the fandom was mixed at best by the end of All Stars. From there Lightning was an obvious choice. Yeah, he's also a former finalist, but he was the first of his cast kicked off in All Stars. Plus he's funny, I wanted a chance to write him. The same could be said for the final member of the team. Scott got 4th and 3rd place in his seasons, so he's by no means been neglected for screen time. But I just find him interesting and entertaining, and I thought there was some unfinished business with his story. Sam is fine, likable and has some good lines here and there, but I just had nothing for the guy. I could have had him and Dakota being cute together, but Scott just had more to work with. To me, it was an obvious choice._

 _Team Explosive only went through one change when choosing their squad. I knew I wanted Shawn and Jasmine, they were major players of TDPI, a great couple, and I just really enjoy both of them. Amy and Sammy were obvious, I felt their storyline was easily the one worst effected by TDPI's bizarre pacing and cut short as a result. And I knew I wanted Dave and Beardo, Dave for his potential left after everything that happened at the end of the season (though I acknowledge he's a pretty hated character), and Beardo for that underdog to develop on thing that I like so much. From there it was a process of elimination game. I like Max and Scarlett but I didn't think it would make sense for Chris or the producers to ever invite them back after Scarlett Fever. Topher and Ella became my choices to host the aftermath, and Topher had his storyline of trying to replace Chris under the guise of a fanboy pretty much wrapped up. Ella could have worked since she loves singing, but eh I find her annoying and didn't want to use up the last female slot on her. That left two choices for each gender. Rodney worked better for some of the things I want to do with the team, and especially after Leonard got more exposure through Ridonculous Race (albeit very little of it), choosing Rodney was easy. However, I initially had Sky picked as the final female of the team since I wanted to explore how her and Dave would react to each other after, well, everything. But the more I thought about it, the more I thought that wouldn't be a storyline people actually want around. And the cast was kind of lacking in assholes, so she was replaced with Sugar, who works better for things I want to do anyway._

 _Last we have Team Old School who was had the most changes. Harold, Leshawna, DJ, Izzy, and Cody were always part of the team. I thought they best fit the bill of characters that could be considered all stars but didn't actually make the cut for All Stars. Courtney was added quickly after and has stuck on the team since. Yes she was in All Stars, made it far, and has had more than enough exposure. But I feel like she's suffered from character derailment perhaps more than any other character in the show, specifically with 'Sundae Muddy Sundae.' So especially since I was bringing Scott back anyway, I felt like she had some loose ends that needed to be tied up. With that all said, the first major change comes from the fact that the last two slots were originally Geoff and Bridgette. Because like the first five, I felt they really fit the All Star label. However, Ridonculous Race came along and made Geoff a major character and ultimately a winner. So since Geoff was no longer deprived of potential spotlight, he was cut from the cast. Bridgette followed soon after because I had little to no plans for her as a solo act. She was very quickly replaced with Beth, who honestly probably should have been on the cast to begin with as a former finalist. But for Geoff's replacement I debated between Trent and Justin, and at first had Justin in the slot. Since Trent did poorly season 2 but was in the main couple of season 1, while Justin did poorly in season 1 and was a major antagonist in season 2, I felt they were on pretty much even ground. It all came down to preference. But in the end I chose Trent, similar to others, because I felt he had unfinished business. It's pretty much agreed by most that how he was used in TDA was unsatisfactory and bizarre, and that was pretty much the end of his story. So he's got a chance at redemption here. Justin is entertaining, hence why I had him in Tren't place at first, but ultimately he was cut since I didn't think there was much to do or develop upon with him. Quite bluntly, he probably would have been Old School's first boot had he been on the team so not much was lost. I've seem some suggestions for who else could have been in the team, but pretty much all of those will get their chance another day. That other day being whenever I make Revenge of the Rejects._

 _With characters out of the way lets cover the setting. World Tour is probably my favorite season, or second favorite if you count RR. With both seasons I really enjoyed the globetrotting aspect since it really shakes things up from just doing another island season for the fifth time. A 'battle of the generations' seemed like an obvious second all stars concept after heroes vs villains, so I combined the two ideas to give us what we have now. By all means feel free to suggest countries and locations that would make for good episodes. I have the locations planned for the next few episodes, but there's more blank spaces on my planning document for locations than I'd like to admit. I should note that I'm trying to prioritize not visiting places that were featured in World Tour or Ridonculous Race, and especially not locations that were in both. Like, there's no way I'm going to do Paris or Hawaii for example. Visiting somewhere else in France or the United States isn't off the table (a US location is one of the few upcoming planned locals, actually), but the more unique the destinations the better. We started off with Antarctica since it's an entire continent that wasn't covered in either season, so I thought it would be a fitting start point. There wasn't TOO much to do with the place since it's full of most ice and a whole lot of nothing else, hence why I kinda had to spring outta nowhere yetis into the mix, but I enjoyed what I came up with here._

 _I should also touch on what I did with B and Staci's elimination. So because he was in the group of people not in All Stars, B obviously had to be part of the cast per my own guidelines. But because I was doing another World Tour complete with the singing, the required singing that gets you eliminated if you don't participate, that gave me a problem. B can't talk, and while the rule wasn't enforced at all after Duncan quit at the start of the season, I wanted to keep the rule as valid. So I had to think of a solution. Do I cut singing from the story? Do I just eliminate B first due to not singing? Do I have B talk, defeating the purpose of his character? None of the above. So the solution I came up with is his singing device. Imagine it making a sort of Microsoft Sam voice, but in a sing songy tone. This device is a loophole that allows B to 'sing' without actually talking. I made sure it being a crappy hunk of scrap was established so B would only use it when he absolutely has to. Even him using it to communicate with his team would still feel kinda cheap, so that's why it's nerfed to only being used in songs. Hopefully people don't find it too convoluted. As for Staci being our first elimination... well, it's Staci. She's a character you kinda have to go out of your way to work with. Her gimmick is so nothing, and she has so few fans that it really wasn't worth keeping her around longer over someone else on Team Radioactive. Especially since I already have Beardo for the "former first boot that can be developed on" role. I plan to actually do something with her in my future Revenge of the Rejects story, but for this one fodder she shall remain._

 _The last thing I want to touch on for the chapter and story going forward is the singing itself. The songs were a vital piece of World Tour and one of the reasons the season is so fondly remembered. They weren't the best quality, but there's a charm to them. And some of them are legit bops, 'I'm Winning This,' is my personal favorite. So I felt if I was gonna do a World Tour sequel, I had to bring back the songs. But I'm no song writer and didn't want to have to do them every episode, so we'll be doing them every other episode. So next chapter won't have a song, the one after it will. I'm undecided yet on if I'll count aftermaths in the order or just do whatever works best for me with those. Once again, I'm really not a song writer, so this left me in a sort of pickle when it came to making songs for the season. Some of those songs in World Tour are fully original after all. However, some of the songs are parodies. Or at least they use familiar beats from known songs, like 'I'm Gonna Make It' referencing 'Life is a Highway' or 'Shear the Sheep' referencing 'Back in Black.' So there lied my solution. All of the songs are gonna be a sort of parody, or will at least use existing songs as a blueprint to give us the BOTG version. This chapter's song, "This Freakin' Blows," should have a fairly obvious reference. But in case you're fortunate enough to not have been endlessly subjected to the song, it used Frozen's 'Let it Go' as a base. It was the first non-Christmas song that I could think of that had to do with ice and such. Going forward I want to try and keep the song references diverse. For example, I'm going to try not to use a Disney song again since I've now used one from Frozen. Though no promises if I end up having them go to a Polynesian location, Moana is my favorite Disney movie and all of those songs are bangers._

 _So that's about all I have to say about the story for right now. Needless to say, I'm very interested to hear reactions, theories on what'll happen going forward, guesses on potential couples, villains, storylines, etc. Who you think will go far or not, that sorta stuff. I also have a poll on my profile where you can vote on your early favorite team. Team Old School is currently winning, but we'll see if that changes now that I've actually acknowledged the poll. As for my other writing, I recently finished up an MLP story (recently meaning recent by my standards), so that was nice. For future plans, I'm going to reboot my MLP horror story but that won't be for a while so it's currently off of my plate. Total Drama Level Up I'll return to eventually, but it's lower on my priority list compared to this story. As for other stories, I've mentioned in the past another TD story I had planned called 'Total Personality Swapped Island,' where it would be an AU of TDI where the characters have their personalities swapped with one another. Harold and Duncan had swapped personalities, Heather and Beth had swapped personalities, just to name a few. Sierra and Alejandro were also added into the mix. It may sound weird to want to do ANOTHER TDI AU after I finished Underdogs, but it was a concept I really dug. But these days I'm not so sure if I'm as gung ho to do it. I already got stories to focus on anyway, is there really any demand for it? I'm gonna toss up a link for a portion of what would be the first episode where everyone is introduced. I've linked this before in Underdogs, but I'm curious to hear feedback for it and see if there's any demand or interest there. Because if there's not, I'll probably just cancel the thing to have another less thing on my plate. With that all said, you can read that preview with the following url._ pastebin (dot com) /LB2XADUN. _Obviously you need to remove the spaces and put in a dot come proper, and you'd have to manually type that in a new tab since you can't copy and past on a story page. Feel free to give it a read if you have time. Outside of TD I'm also working on a one shot (maybe a few chapters if it goes well) for Persona 5, so there's that if you enjoy those games. I have a few other ideas here and there, but nothing else I've put major thought in. Am I beating around the bush? Alright, guess it's time to finish this lengthy author's note by addressing the obvious._

 _So if you're joining me after Total Drama Underdogs you're probably not surprised by this, but for any new readers yes, I know this chapter took way too long to get out. I truly do apologize, but that's just how it was. I'm not making excuses here, I fully admit that I can be lazy and my motivation for writing can be lacking. I'm at a spot in life where I only have so much free time in a week and often I just end up not spending time writing during that. Going forward I would hope this will change, I have a newer more happy job, I'm in an environment that makes writing easier, etc. But I make no promises because quite frankly I can get busy or interested in something else. For example, no writing was going to get done the weeks after Fire Emblem Three Houses came out, I was using all my free time to play that game. There are going to be other games or similar projects that come along, so maybe another hiatus will strike. I would hope that it wouldn't, but I fully admit that it could. I know it can be frustrating, and again I apologize about the delay, but sometimes people just aren't going to be as consistent with getting chapters out as others. And that's where I'm at._

 _With that all said, going forward I have a sort of policy. I'll be deleting any reviews that are just something along the lines of "Where's the new chapter?" I actually was making good progress on that aforementioned Persona 5 story before finishing this, but then I had a realization of "there's gonna be reviews on this just asking where the BOTG update is," because I've had that happen before with Underdogs. And that sort of bummed me out and made me hit a temporary wall on that story. Similarly, going forward I'm going to try being better at responding to PMs. That being said, unless a chapter is near the end of completion or in the editing stage, I won't be responding to messages asking where the chapter is. I appreciate enthusiasm for my story, really I do, but I don't need constant messages asking when the next chapter is because unless it's already almost done the answer is "I don't know, it'll be ready when it's ready." If I'm sounding like an asshole about this I'm sorry, but I just wanted to go ahead and put that out there._

 _A'ight, cool, we got the bad mojo out of the way. With that all said and done, I hope you all enjoyed the chapter. Feel free to leave feedback on everything, vote on that poll, and I'll see you all for the next one._


	3. The Luck of the Irish

"Previously on Battle of the Generations," Chris introduced, standing in the Jumbo Jet's elimination area. "Our three teams competed in their first challenge, going head to head to head in a race to the south pole. They had a bumpy ride along the way, dealing with dynamite, leopard seals, and an angry pack of yetis. In the final stretch of the race Courtney and Scott began to butt heads, giving Team Explosive an easy pass to win the challenge. Courtney gave Scott a cattle prod to the side, securing safety for her team in the process. Things looked bleak for the farmer with his team up for elimination, but he was able to convince enough people to give him a second chance. And so it was Staci that once again became the first one eliminated. Can Team Radioactive bounce back from their loss? Where will the Jumbo Jet be taking these losers next? And who will be the next to get literally kicked off the plane? All that and more, right here on TOTAL... DRAMA... BATTLE OF THE GENERATIONS!"

 ***** Opening Credits *****

Business picked up immediately where it left off following Staci's elimination. Team Radioactive was piling out of the elimination ceremony, Anne Maria and Dakota at the front still looking annoyed at the vote result. Scott trailed behind at the back of the line behind Dawn and B. He stared on awkwardly, still feeling a mix of shock and relief at staying. He had a feeling Brick would be convinced by his pleading to stay, and figured Lightning wanted Staci out anyway, but since there was no tie Dawn and B both had to have voted to keep him. And honestly, he hadn't been confident that it would happen.

"Hey, uh, you two." Scott finally said, getting the mystic and silent genius to stop for a moment. "I just wanted to say..." He stopped, clearing his throat. The farmer took a few attempts at trying to speak but struggled, almost as if what he was trying to say was painful and difficult. Dawn and B watched him curiously, with Scott's stuttering eventually turning to hacking and coughing. Finally he punched himself in the gut which seemed to do the trick. "THANKS... for, you know, not voting me out and junk."

B narrowed his eyes, not sure if he should take that display as genuine or overacting. Dawn, meanwhile, smiled and nodded. "You're welcome. Though don't think this means we've forgotten how you were back on Revenge of the Island. B took a lot of convincing to give you another chance, so I would hope you don't make us regret it."

After a nod in agreement, B did the 'I'm watching you' finger sign to Scott. He chuckled nervously in response.

"I'll keep that in mind."

Eventually the trio made it to economy class where the rest of their team were already lingering around. Team Old School were also there, and a friendly conversation had broken out among the group of Harold, Leshawna, Trent, and Cody. Izzy was giggling to herself, looking through the overhead cargo area while everyone else just sat around. When Brick noticed his teammates arrive, he jogged up to them.

"There you guys are! Now that the ceremony is over I'm gonna head on over to the cargo to help out those Team Explosive guys with their zombie search. Gotta hold up our end of the deal, after all. See you guys there." With his reminder said, Brick headed for the cargo, Scott looking perplexed as he left.

"Zombies?"

Dawn giggled, motioning for the former villain to follow them. "You know, if you want to prove that you really are all for helping us this season, perhaps you could join B and I with this. After all, the searches will be faster with the more people we have helping."

B nodded, walking off in the same way Brick had left. Dawn followed, and while he still looked confused about the situation, Scott shrugged and reluctantly joined them. As he left, he didn't notice as he passed Courtney. The former CIT glared, scoffing when he was gone.

"They actually kept him after he lost them the challenge? Guess that team is dumber than I thought." Rolling her eyes, she eyed the rest of the occupants. Lightning was doing pushups, while Dakota and Anne Maria chatted about fashion nearby. The other members of that team had left, though to where Courtney had no idea. It was after noticing the large group convo between the boys and Leshawna that got Courtney really thinking. She noticed DJ and Beth sitting nearby, so she scooted closer to them.

"Psst. DJ, Beth," Courtney whispered, getting the brickhouse and awkward girl's attention. "Can we talk? Like, more privately in the dinning room?"

DJ and Beth exchanged a look, both surprised and hesitant by the sudden request since they were well aware of Courtney's past on the show. But with nothing better to do and out of curiosity for what she wanted, they both nodded.

 ***** In the Cafeteria *****

"An alliance?!"

Beth gasped before being shushed by Courtney. The Type A personality glanced back to make sure no one had heard them.

"Keep it down, you don't want others to hear us," Courtney scolded.

"Courtney, we JUST got done with the first challenge," DJ shot back, arms crossed. "And you already want to start a big alliance out of the gate? I thought you didn't want us to think you were the same overly competitive girl that you became in your last few seasons?"

"Well of course I'm going to be competitive, a million bucks is on the line," Courtney pointed out, wincing when she noticed the annoyed glares that got her. "But that's not the point! I'm only suggesting an alliance now because it may be too late later."

"What do you mean?" Beth asked.

"Just think about it, the way our team is laid out puts us at a disadvantage." The Latina counted on her fingers as she listed off names. "Trent, Harold, and Cody. They're all in a big band together. They've spent more time with each other out of season than pretty much anyone else on the show that wasn't in a couple."

"Oh yeah, didn't the Drama Brothers get back together after All Stars ended?" DJ asked. "I think they even put out a new album last year."

"Ohmygosh yes!" Beth squeed, jumping up and down. "It was so good! Trent has this solo part on the first track that'll just melt your he-"

Annoyed, Courtney loudly cleared her throat to interrupt Beth's gushing. The farm girl smiled sheepishly in response. "Heh, you were saying?"

"My point, is having those three here together on a team is bad news for the rest of us," Courtney continued. "They might not be an official alliance but they may as well be since they'll definitely be talking and thus voting together. It gets even worse when you add Leshawna to the mix. Harold is going to be around her constantly, so it's highly likely she'll vote the same way as them. And if she does, that's half of the team right there."

DJ and Beth blinked in surprise, not having considered any of this. But thinking it over, Courtney raised a good point. The brickhouse whistled. "Dang, I never thought about it that way."

Hiding the smug satisfaction she felt at being proven right, Courtney continued. "So if we vote together and get Izzy in the mix, we should be able to even the odds. Best case scenario Leshawna doesn't vote with them and we'll ensure we're not overwhelmed by the numbers. Worst case scenario it goes to a tiebreaker and we at least have a fair shot at winning that."

The friendlier two pondered the proposal, not fully convinced but unable to deny the logic in Courtney's reasoning. Still, agreeing to an alliance this early was a risky move, and was it truly that much of a guarantee that the other half of the team would be voting together?

"Let us think on it for a bit," Beth suggested, DJ nodding in agreement. "After all, hopefully we won't even have to vote someone off for a while if we keep things up in challenges."

Courtney sighed, disappointed that there was no deal yet but accepting that her reputation probably played a part in to that. At least they didn't say no. "Fair enough. But please really do think it over. If one of us is the first one on the team out, the rest will just be sitting ducks to the Drama Brothers and Leshawna."

 ***** Cockpit Confessional: Beth *****

"As much as I hate to admit it, Courtney brought up some really good points," the farmer noted, Chef doing his pilot thing in the background. "Teaming up with her and DJ really might be the best plan. But while I have no problems with DJ, can you blame me for being hesitant toward Courtney? The last time I played was in Total Drama Action, and we weren't exactly buddies that season."

"No kidding," Chef added. "She probably got under your skin that season worse than Heather did!"

"And that's really saying something!" Beth huffed, crossing her arms. "She may have a point, but it's gonna take time for me to trust her."

 ***** In First Class *****

Dave sighed in satisfaction as he leaned back in his comfy chair. Nearby Beardo was at the bar, pouring a nice glass of sparkling apple juice and enjoying a slice of cake. Shawn, Jasmine, and Sammy however were nowhere to be seen as they were busy zombie checking the cargo area. By now they had been joined by members of Team Radioactive, having given a rundown to a still very confused and annoyed Scott. Finally, Sugar watched on in amusement as Rodney knelled next to Amy.

"Could you, like, make yourself useful and go get me something to drink," the mean twin commanded, looking Rodney in the eyes. The large farmer seemed too entranced and smitten to have even registered the insult.

"Yes ma'am!"

Once Rodney jogged off to grab Amy a drink, Sugar took the opportunity to approach the cheerleader. Not waiting for a response, Sugar slid by and plopped down into the seat next to her.

"Howdy!" The country girl flashed a toothy grin Amy's way, making her recoil in disgust.

"Can I help you?" Amy said, her voice dripping in condescending annoyance. "I'm trying to relax over here."

"I can see that." Sugar glanced back at Rodney, who was pouring a glass of tea for Amy while Beardo provided the sound of a gushing waterfall nearby to go with the pouring. "Big guy over there is already wrapped around yer finger, ain't he?"

Raising an eyebrow, Amy rolled her eyes and tried to keep it nonchalant. "I have no idea what you're talking about, Rodney is just being nice. He's not being manipulated at all!"

 ***** Confessional: Rodney *****

"I'm so excited to tell my brothers back home about my new girlfriend!" Rodney grinned proudly, his hulking frame making the already cramped bathroom all the more claustrophobic as his arms reached from wall to wall. "Of course, this means I'll have to dump my girlfriend who works at the gas station back home, we've been dating ever since pops sent me down there for some lighter fluid. Oh well, Amy is way hotter than she is so I'm sure she'll understand!"

 ***** In First Class *****

Sugar raised an eyebrow, chuckling at Amy's defense. "I didn't say nothin bout manipulating, but thems your words and not mine. Anyhow, I don't care if you're stringing along Rodney or not. Shoot, I think it's plum smart if anything."

"Oh." Amy blinked, not expecting such a compliment out of the country girl. She smirked. "Thanks. I guess it IS pretty clever, isn't it?"

"Sure enough! Actually, I came over here to see if we could strike up some sorta alliance. I know firsthand from last time what goodie two shoes Shawn and Jasmine can be, and they seem to have yer sister on their side. We cooler gals gotta stick together and make sure they don't pick us off, right?"

While Amy was a bit offended by Sugar considering herself and the mean twin to be on the same level of coolness, it was an interesting proposition. "Ugh, right? What is up with those weirdos even giving my dumb sister the time of day? If you want to work together to make sure they're dealt with, it sounds like a good deal to me."

Rodney finally returned with not only Amy's drink but also a slice of cake for her and another for himself. After placing her goodies on the flight tray in front of her, he took notice of the new guest. "Oh, hey Sugar."

"Rodney, ya think you could bring me back some o that cake?" Sugar batted her eyes and struck what she must have imagined was a sexy pose. "I sure would appreciate it."

The farm boy blinked, taking a seat on the other side of Amy. "Well, I mean, can't you get it? It's not that far away, and I wouldn't know how big of a piece you would want any-"

"Just go get it for her," Amy snapped, her gaze instantly taking Rodney back to his love struck obedient state. He shot up and began making his way back to the bar, mumbling gibrish along the way. The mean twin and farm girl exchanged a grin, leaning back in their chairs to further relax.

 ***** In the Cafeteria *****

A day had passed and it was now morning as everyone piled in for breakfast. The members of Team Explosive all looked well rested and in high spirits. The zombie search had, of course, brought no results. And the addition of Scott to the search made things a bit quicker. But while that team all seemed to be doing well, the same couldn't be said for most of the others. Many of them groaned and lurched over, trying their best to pop their backs into a comfortable position. A sickening crack was heard as Lighting was the first to successfully put his spine back into the proper alignment. Trent followed next, cringing before rubbing his sore back.

"Geez, I knew you guys had it rough sleeping in economy class back in World Tour but I never knew it was THAT bad."

Harold delivered a karate chop to his lower spine, making himself yelp. "You get used to it. Well, as used to it as you CAN get."

While everyone got to work on cracking their backs and rubbing the sleep out of their eyes, Chef began putting plates down in front of everyone. On the plates, alongside some mashed potatoes and rutabagas, was half of a sheep's stomach filled with a strange smelling brown pudding meat inside. The dish emitted a strong odor that prompted some retches and cringes throughout the group.

"Ew, what the heck are you serving us?" Anne Maria scooted the plate away, holding her nose in disgust. "That stuff ain't right."

"It's haggis," Cody observed, cautiously taking a bite from the strange pudding-like substance, easing up when it tasted surprisingly edible. "We had some of this the last time we toured the UK."

"Dude, do you remember how freaked out Justin looked when they brought his plate out?" Trent added, sharing a laugh with his two bandmates. "Oh man, I can't believe he didn't just puke then and there! Wonder if he's gotten any work done on that solo album while we're here?"

Courtney narrowed her eyes at the boys as the conversation unfolded, going unnoticed while she stomached down the Scottish meal. The others also began eating, and while some did still seem grossed out by the taste, and DJ and Dawn flat out refused to eat it, others seemed to be loving it. Shawn was making a steady pace on the meal, while Sugar shoveled it down like it was no one's business. The only one out pacing her was Lightning, who scarfed down the haggis like a machine.

 ***** Confessional: Lightning *****

"Lightning ain't never heard of this haggis stuff, but he DOES know protein. I got like a sha-seventh sense to tell when something is high in protein, so all Lightning knows is that meal was good in his book!"

 ***** In the Cafeteria *****

While everyone finished their meals, for some meaning only the mashed potatoes and rutabagas, Chris finally strolled in to join them. Though instead of his usual attire, he had opted for a William Wallace looking getup. Complete with kilt, plaid sash, blue and white facepaint, and a new messy hairdo. He lifted up a fake sword and shield, while Chef stood nearby badly playing the bagpipe. Or perhaps he was playing it well, to the contestants it was a painful loud mess regardless. Most kept their fingers in their ears as they waited for the music to finish, finally stopping as Chris stood atop a table.

"Aye, laddies," the host barked in an offensively bad Scottish accent. "I bet ye can guess where we're going next on our trip!"

"Uh... Scotland?" Dave eventually said to voice the obvious.

"I- wait what?" Chris looked genuinely surprised, narrowing his eyes. "No! We're going to Ireland, isn't it obvious from the food and my new digs?"

"Everything about what you have going on here is Scottish, not Irish," Izzy pointed out, crossing her arms with an annoyed glare at the host. "Did you think they were the same thing or something?"

"... Nooooooo, of course not!" Chris smiled, backing up until he was next to Chef. He spoke from the side of his mouth in a whisper, still keeping the smile. "Do we have enough gas to make it to Scotland?"

"If we had took the short way, yeah we would," the cook grumbled back. "But since you insisted on the long way? Nah, we're still landing in Cork. We don't got the fuel to make it farther."

Chris sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose in annoyance. "I knew we'd probably have another Athens and Rome situation this season, but I didn't think it was going to happen THIS soon. Oh well, Ireland it is!" He huffed off, arms folded. "Now I have to change into a whole different outfit, darn it!"

As the host and pilot left to tend to their respective duties, murmuring broke out among the groups concerning their upcoming destination. Izzy in particular looked ecstatic as she threw an arm around Harold.

"Coolio! Between me and Harold, we've got like a totally unbeatable home field advantage!" She pulled her fellow redhead close, flashing him a grin. "We'll have the luck o' the Irish on our side, eh McGrady?"

The dweeb nodded enthusiastically, giving the team a similar smile. "I was really hoping we'd be going through Ireland this season. My grandpa was even born in Cork, so this works out wicked for us!"

Having overheard the conversation from the next table over, Brick looked over at Scott curiously. "Say, Scott, you wouldn't happen to have some Irish blood in ya too, would ya?"

The dirt farmer scoffed, narrowing his eyes towards his teammate. "Not all redheads have Irish ancestors you know."

 ***** Confessional: Scott *****

"I mean, my great grandma WAS Irish, but still!"

 ***** Somewhere above Cork, Ireland *****

The plane eventually began making its descent into Ireland, flying above the city of Cork. After passing over various Georgian style buildings, from churches to a food market, the plane settled into the local airport. Contestants followed behind Chris, who was now clad in a green 'Kiss Me, I'm Irish,' shirt to go with his otherwise usual attire.

"Kinda surprised you didn't go with a leprechaun outfit, honestly," Jasmine mused as they were led to the town's center, her boyfriend chuckling. "Seems like it would be a very you thing to do."

"As it turns out, we DO have a leprechaun outfit," Chris replied, coming to a stop and allowing the others to gather around. "But we have another use for it right now, so this was the best I could do. On that note, time to explain today's challenge!"

Digging in his pockets, the host pulled out a gold coin. At least it looked genuine, but it was engraved with a picture of Chris' face on one side and a picture of the jumbo jet on the other. "Your goal today will actually involve stealing gold from a genuine leprechaun! Of course, there's more to it than that so here's the rundown. Getting the gold will require some extra luck, so first you'll be racing to Blarney Castle nearby. Your goal there will be kissing the infamous Blarney Stone at the top of the castle, bringing you good luck."

"Actually, kissing the Blarney Stone is just supposed to give you the gift of eloquence," Harold explained, raising a finger. "It doesn't bring good lu-"

"ONCE all of your teammates have kissed the stone," Chris loudly continued before the nerd could finish his correction. "You'll then be tasked with hunting down the pot of gold while avoiding the leprechaun's wrath. Be careful, those things get deadly when you mess with their gold!"

"Someone's been watching too many crummy horror movies," Sammy whispered, Beardo smirking in response and replicating the theme from Psycho as he mimed a knife being stabbed a few times.

"You'll continue until everyone on the team has collected a gold coin of their own, and they MUST retrieve their coin themselves without a teammate grabbing it for them." Chris gave a pointed look to Shawn and Jasmine, who both deflated a bit since they had already been making plans to get the task done for the entire team themselves. "Once everyone has their coin you'll return here to the city and make your way to Cork Harbor. All you have to do is deposit all the coins into your team's own pot of gold to win."

A shot cut to an area of the harbor where three pots floated in the water like buoys. There was a blue one with Old School's logo on the side, a green one with Radioactive's logo, and finally a red one with Explosive's logo. The water had them swaying from to side but they more or less stayed relatively stationary.

"That's not all. Because it can't be TOO easy on your kids, you'll have to deposit your coins using these." Chris motioned to his side where Chef approached the group holding a large amount of sticks. They resembled hockey sticks, though the end was more wide and circular. He tossed one of them to Shawn, who inspected it curiously. "They're called hurleys. Typically they're used in a local sport to hurl balls through goalposts, but you'll be using them to fling your coins into your pots. If you miss and a coin lands in the water, you'll have to swim out and retrieve it, then return to land and try again."

"These make for a pretty good melee weapon," Shawn complimented, wacking the stick into his hand a few times before taking a few practice swings. "I'm more of a cricket bat kinda guy, personally, but these would definitely get the job done."

Chris smirked while Chef finished handing out the hurling sticks to the rest of the cast. As he did this, a group of interns suddenly came from off screen hauling a cage that had a sheet covering it. The cage was sat down next to their employer, and the interns noticeably gave it some distance once they were done.

"Glad you approve! And on that note, I almost forgot to introduce our leprechaun for the day. Some of you may recognize him." Chuckling ominously, Chris yanked the sheet off the cage.

Inside was a boy, but he almost seemed more animal than man. His skin was a sickly green, with one ear partially chipped off and nails that seemed closer to claws than anything. He was nearly bald, save for a few long strands of brown, and his teeth were sharp and pointed. He growled as the sunlight blared down on him, and when Chris got close he lunged forward and tried in vain to swipe at his tormentor while making more animal-like noises.

"ZOMBIE!" Shawn jumped into action, protectively getting in front of Jasmine and holding up his hurley like a weapon. "I KNEW they were coming! Everybody stand back, I'll handle this."

"Whoa whoa, hold on Shawn, that's not a zombie!" Rodney quickly held the conspiracy theorist back before he was able to cave the monster boy's skull in. "Didn't you watch World Tour?"

"Ezekiel?" DJ finally said, leaning forward to closer inspect the feral prairie boy but keeping back just enough to stay out of his reach. "You're STILL exploiting the poor guy all these years later?"

"Technically I exploit all of you kids, not just him," Chris pointed out, not missing a beat. He tapped the top of the cage, getting a hate filled glare from the captive within. "But yup, it's Zeke! He'll be playing our leprechaun for the day."

Indeed, Ezekiel wasn't wearing his usual ragged hoodie and jeans. Instead he was completely clad in a stereotypical leprechaun outfit, complete with tiny green hat and polished shoes. He bit at the bars, trying to escape in some way to no avail.

"The kid's parents seemed to finally get basic cable down in that prairie of their's," Chef explained, arms folded. "They finally found out what happened to him back in World Tour and got around to suing the network, asking them to retrieve him and pay for his recovery."

"Usually the contracts are pretty air tight, but we didn't really account for contestants becoming feral in the contracts back then," Chris continued, his tone noticeably more spiteful as he glared down at the cage's occupant. "Letting us use Zeke for this challenge was one of the conditions to the producers agreeing to fix him up."

The others looked on in a mix of sympathy and surprise. Leshawna put her hands on her hips, raising an eyebrow. "I'm surprised you agreed to that to begin with."

Chris shrugged. "I ain't the one who has to personally pay for the therapy, so it's no skin off my bones. But since the network is going to do that for him, that means Zeke is going to be a nice, cooperative little leprechaun, isn't that right?"

He narrowed his eyes expectantly at Ezekiel, who merely folded his arms and grumbled something ineligible that vaguely sounded like agreement.

"So that about covers it. Get to Blarney Castle, kiss the stone, steal some gold without Zeke maiming you, then make it back to the harbor to hurl in your coins. First team to get all their coins back wins first class, the last team to do it sends someone home. Any questions?" Chris looked over the cast, some of them shooting up a hand. "None? Cool, challenge starts in one minute."

He walked off, ignoring those who wanted to ask something. The interns returned to haul off Ezekiel to wherever he was needed, Shawn watching him nervously all the while.

 ***** Confessional: Shawn *****

"I'm trying to stay calm and tell myself it's just a feral guy. Not a zombie." He took a deep breath, closing his eyes in an attempt to further relax. "Sure he may growl like a zombie, and has green skin like a zombie, and tries to claw and bite like a zombie... but he's not a zombie! Totally not, just a regular old feral dude."

Shawn chuckled nervously, tapping his fingers along the counter. "No problemo."

 ***** In the middle of Cork *****

"Alright lads and laddies, may the luck of the Irish be with you." Chris blew his airhorn. "Begin!"

The teams were off, with the usual more athletic bunch consisting of Lightning, Shawn, and Jasmine more ahead than the others. Team Explosive and Radioactive used signs to make sure they were on the right direction, but having visited the castle before Harold and Izzy were able to steer their team with no directions needed.

"What's so special about a gosh darn rock, anyway? How's kissing it gonna help us?" Sugar asked, trailing at the end of her group.

"It probably won't, but at least it won't be as dangerous as getting the coins from Ezekiel," Sammy pointed out.

On cue, Izzy suddenly appeared next to the team, running with a wicked grin. "Fun fact, because the stone is embedded in a wall you have to lay on your back and lean over a hole to kiss it! Usually they have someone there to hold you to make sure you don't fall, but I'm guessing Chris won't have that for us."

"And you'd be right!" Chris' voice echoed around the teams through a megaphone, followed up with some laughter. With her piece of information passed on, Izzy had then disappeared to return to her team, leaving some members of Team Explosive notably more nervous.

The race to Blarney Castle was otherwise relatively uneventful. Unsurprisingly, Lightning was the first to reach the destination, his teammates all fairly far behind the jock. "Sha-first! That's what Lightning's talking bout!" Flexing, he gave his biceps a kiss each, then glared back at his teammates. "Come on now, Lightning don't got all day."

Brick and Dakota were making good progress towards the castle, but all Lightning's calling did was annoy the rest of the team who were sweaty and out of breath. Anne Maria had to stop momentarily, leaning against a tree. As she did, Shawn and Jasmine ran by with the remainder of their team close behind. Though Beardo and Sugar in particular were clearly struggling to keep up the pace. When she noticed Team Old School also fast approaching with Izzy at the front of the group, the Jersey girl took back off.

Eventually it was Team Explosive to fully arrive at the castle first, though the aforementioned country girl and beatboxer collapsed to catch their breath while the main couple looked over the castle.

"The stone is at the top," Jasmine reminded everyone. "So we just gotta navigate our way through the castle to get to the roof."

"Or you can go the more direct way if you don't want to explore a cramped dark castle like me," Shawn added, running up to the side of the building and beginning to climb. "I'll meet anyone who doesn't want to climb at the top, just keep those hurleys ready in case a lurker comes out of the shadows."

The outback girl smirked in amusement at her boyfriend's strategy, shrugging as she followed close behind. Amy watched the two climb, rolling her eyes and jogging in to the castle. "Yeah, no, I'm taking the stairs."

Beardo, Sugar, Dave, and Rodney followed the mean twin through the castle, with a reluctant Sammy bringing up the rear when she determined she wouldn't have the finesse needed for the climb. Once they were gone, the remaining members of Team Radioactive caught up to Lightning, many looking up at Shawn and Jasmine in surprise.

"Are they climbing to the top?" Dakota asked, half impressed and half confused. "Are we allowed to do that?"

"Well Chris didn't say anything against it, so I would assume it's ok," Brick replied. "And it actually might be quicker than finding the way up in the castle itself."

"You call that climbing? Lightning will show you REAL climbing!" Taking the display of athleticism from the Explosive couple as a challenge, Lightning jumped on to the wall and began making his own climb up. Brick and Scott also followed behind as they made their way up the wall, though B tapped his chin and instead decided to go into the castle.

With the remainder of Team Radioactive following B and trusting his sense of direction, Team Old School were the last to arrive despite their sense of direction thanks to less athletic teammates.

"Darn it, we're falling behind." Harold stopped at the castle's entrance to catch his breath, glancing up to see the five climbing contestants. Shawn and Jasmine were already over halfway up, with Lightning not far behind. "Huh, Chris didn't say anything about us having to climb up."

"Looks like fun!" Izzy decided to go ahead and climb as well, not waiting around for any sort of strategy talk.

"Well I've visited here a few times before, so I know the quickest way to the top," the nerd continued, looking on a bit annoyed at his more wild teammate jumping ahead. "So let's get going!"

Harold led the remainder of his team inside, taking off towards the closest path to the roof. The castle wasn't particularly large, but it seemed possible to get turned around if someone took the wrong path. Namely, this was the case for Team Explosive as they suddenly found themselves at the entrance again. Amy had apparently taken some wrong turns, leading their team to go in a circle.

Meanwhile, Shawn had just reached the roof and held a hand down to help hoist up his girlfriend. The two rushed over towards the stone, while the trio climbing from Team Radioactive struggled to force their way up the castle wall.

"Starting to think this was a dumb idea," Scott mumbled as he crossed the halfway point of the wall. Suddenly, he heard a wild giggling below him, and couldn't react in time to avoid Izzy climbing over him. Since this finished with her pushing off of the farmer's face to jump a bit higher up the wall, he nearly lost his grip and yelped at almost falling. "Watch where you're going!"

Brick raised an eyebrow as he watched Izzy zoom up the wall with relative ease. He watched as she began to get near Lightning, who was clearly not paying attention to anything other than his climb. "On your left, Lightning, be advised!"

"Sha-what?" It was too late, as Izzy's spider-like climbing allowed her to zoom over and past Lightning. Being taken off guard, the sudden orange blur going over him caused Lightning to slip, sending him falling down the wall. Brick acted fast and grabbed Lightning's arm as he passed to prevent him from falling all the way down to the ground.

"Don't worry, soldier, I got ya." The cadet huffed as he tried to pull Lightning back towards the wall, though the jock's mass was clearly making it a difficult task. Since he now only had one hand gripping the wall, he sweated nervously as he felt his fingers wobble. "Well, at least I hope I got ya. Scott, a little help here?"

Scott had just passed his two teammates once he received the call for assistance, making him groan a bit as he backtracked to help keep Lightning and Brick safe. Meanwhile at the roof of the castle, Izzy had just finished kissing the stone, while Shawn and Jasmine stood nearby waiting for their team as they had also completed the task.

Eventually a commotion could be heard coming up the stairs. All three looked on hopefully, but the survivalists' expressions faltered when it was Team Old School to make their way to the top first.

"Aw, what? We got here first, how'd they get passed up on the way up the stairs?" Shawn asked while Izzy ran over to rejoin her team.

"Actually, we didn't see Team Explosive on the way up here," DJ commented while his team began taking turns laying down and kissing the stone. It required holding on to two metal bars and leaning one's head back at an awkward angle, with Harold taking the initiative to show how it was done. "They musta got lost down there."

"Well crap, that's not good." Jasmine peered down the staircase, then looked back at her boyfriend. "I'll see if I can go find them. Be back in a jiff."

"Be careful!" While she did that, Shawn decided to keep watch over the wall in case his teammates somehow ended up circling back to the entrance. Meanwhile, Leshawna and Beth had finished kissing the stone, with DJ being the newest to complete the task. Cody was now getting in to position, with his teammates all looking optimistic.

"And now we're back in the lead." Courtney grinned proudly, fists on her hips. "Guess it came in handy to have people on hand that actually knows the location."

While Harold smiled in appreciation, Izzy giggled to herself. "Yeah, this place is pretty cool. Another fun fact about the stone, they say the locals like to spite tourists by coming to the castle here at night and pee on it!"

Since Cody was in mid-kiss with the stone, his eyes shot open. He gagged and scrubbed at his tongue with his hands. It was soon after doing this that he realized in doing so, he had let go of the safety bars. Yelping, his scrawny frame began to slip into the hole and down to the hard surface below. Thankfully, Trent jumped into action just in time to grab his foot before it slipped away. DJ then grabbed his other foot, and together they hoisted the geek back to safety.

Noticing a few annoyed looks coming her way, the crazy redhead just chuckled apologetically. "But they totally don't do that anymore now that the castle has security cameras, so it's all good!"

 ***** Confessional: Cody *****

Cody scrubbed at his tongue furiously with a toothbrush, spitting in to the sink before then brushing the teeth.

 ***** On Blarney Castle *****

After a reluctant Trent and Courtney also kissed the stone, Team Old School were off to find their way to the next challenge. Shawn tapped his fingers along the walls, pondering if he should go look for Jasmine and the others in case they had ran in to a hoard of zombies. It was then that he heard a new group of voices approaching. His optimistic grin quickly turned to a frown when he saw that it was merely Team Radioactive.

"Oh come on!"

"Ya snooze ya lose, scruffy boy," Anne Maria taunted at the team ran past Shawn and over to the stone. B's sense of direction had seemed to aid getting them up to the roof in a timely manner, though not as quick as Harold since he hadn't personally been to the castle before like him.

While Dawn moved to kiss the stone first, Dakota looked around curiously. "Where at the others at?"

"We're here!" Brick groaned as he crawled over the top of the wall and plopped on to the roof. Lightning was right behind him, with Scott finally bringing up the rear. Lightning was silent, perhaps disgruntled that he had to have been rescued from plummeting off the wall, so he merely made his way over to his teammates with arms folded. Scott and Brick looked out of breath from hauling their teammate to safety, but were otherwise fine.

One by one the generation two team went about kissing the stone, while Shawn nervously looked on for his teammates. It was only after Brick and Scott finally did the deed that Team Explosive finally began approaching from the stairs. Led by a very annoyed looking Jasmine, she merely pointed towards the stone and the others hurried to try and make up for lost time.

"Sorry about the delay, somehow Amy got them super lost," the Australian explained, sending a glare the mean twin's way. "The castle isn't THAT big, so I couldn't imagine how she did it."

 ***** Confessional: Amy *****

"Alright, so I'm not the best at directions. So what? Who has the time to worry about getting good at useless stuff like that?"

 ***** On Blarney Castle *****

By now Team Old School and Radioactive were totally out of sight, and Team Explosive had just finished the deed by last having Sugar smooch the stone. While she was getting up, Shawn scanned the horizon for any sign of Ezekiel.

"Chris didn't really specify where we go to find the pot of gold," he pondered out loud. "There's gotta be some kind of hint."

Sammy and Jasmine approached him, and it was then that the nice twin gasped and pointed to the sky. "Look, over there!"

In the sky was a rainbow, that seemed to lead into a more heavily forested area of town. They all exchanged a look, nodding before leading the others to the end of the rainbow. It was a cliche, but that just meant it was all the more likely to be where Chris wanted them to go.

Meanwhile, the other teams had also come to the conclusion that they needed to follow the rainbow. As they entered the more heavily forested area keeping view of the rainbow became more difficult, but they were making steady progress. Beth looked around nervously as Ezekiel's animal-like grunts and growls could be heard around them.

"How long has he been feral at this point?" she asked her teammates as they kept their guard up, knowing the prairie boy could be dangerous when left unchecked. "Honestly, I don't know how someone can even come back from that after so long."

"You both grew up on a farm, right?" Cody replied, keeping his hurley gripped tight in case he needed to use it defensively. "Maybe you could try relating to him to calm him down? Who knows, maybe you guys could really hit it off?"

Beth chuckled. "What, me and Zeke being a thing? Nah, I don't think that would happen."

"Hey, crazier things have happened on this sh- WHOA!" DJ skidded to a halt, nearly avoiding projectile vomit that landed in front of him. This was no ordinary vomit, as it was acidic and caused the grass to dissolve on the spot. The team looked up, spotting Ezekiel perched on a tree branch with a terrifying glare. He sent another shot of vomit their way, causing them to disperse to avoid injury.

"Well that's gonna make getting near him pretty dangerous," Trent pointed out as he and Leshawna ducked behind a tree to avoid the newest shot of bile. "But at least he doesn't have a way to mess with us from long distance."

On cue, Trent was suddenly nailed in the side of the head with a shoe. Leshawna looked up to see Ezekiel standing a bit away, wielding a shoe cannon. Yes, a cannon that fires out shoes. He cackled maniacally as he fired shoes at Team Old School as if it was a machine gun. While most shots missed, some pelted team members in various body parts.

"Leprechauns are supposed to love having shoes clean and polished, shooting them around the forest is totally inaccurate to the lore," Harold complained before a well sized boot found itself planted square between the legs. He groaned in pain, grabbing his assaulted crotch as he fell to the ground.

Ezekiel continued to laugh as Team Old School scrambled and dispersed. He noticed Courtney ducking into a bush for cover and was almost ready to fire when he suddenly heard loud footsteps coming from behind. Curious, he turned around just in time to see Lightning charge in to him, running the feral mutant over like a freight train.

"Sha-bam! Lightning ain't afraid of no monsters." The jock kissed his biceps proudly, looking down at Ezekiel with his best cocky grin. "Watcha got, freakshow? How you gonna handle the Lightning?"

Gritting his teeth, Ezekiel fired up his shot and hit his projectile vomit towards Lightning. Due to the closeness, the athlete wasn't able to fully avoid the blow with some bile getting on his pants. Normally this would be very gross but otherwise harmless, but thanks to it being mutant vomit it was as if he had sat on lava. Yelling, Lightning held his buttocks and ran to find the nearest water source to jump in to. He ran past the rest of his team in the process, who had been watching the scuffle from behind cover.

"Welp, so much for that plan," Scott snarked while Lightning plopped down into a nearby pond.

"I bet his acid spit wouldn't do anything to Dakotazoid," Anne Maria pointed out, everyone turning their eyes to the heiress in question. "Think you could go keep him busy for us?"

 ***** Confessional: Dakota *****

"Ugh, that's two challenges in a row they've wanted me to turn into Dakotazoid for them. I didn't come back to just be known as 'that girl who can turn into a big mutant.' Really hope this doesn't become a reoccurring thing."

 ***** In the forest surrounding Blarney *****

"I'm not mad right now, but I guess if we need a last ditch plan I could try it," Dakota finally said, the team having now been rejoined by Lightning while Ezekiel terrorized Team Old School some more. "Any other ideas? Preferably one that doesn't get someone hurt?"

B rubbed his chin, thinking over potential scenarios to get the team to safety. As he looked over his teammates, an idea finally struck. Dawn took notice of his change in expression and smiled. "I believe B has an idea."

Everyone looked towards the silent genius, curious. With their attention on him, he simply pointed at Anne Maria, then at Ezekiel. Some seemed a bit confused, the Jersey girl especially, so Dawn continued to explain.

"He believes that Anne Maria could sufficiently distract him with no risk of being harmed."

"Oh yeah, he was smitten with her back in season four," Brick recalled, grinning at the plan. "There's no way he'd hurt her, and if he's distracted then we can get to the pot of gold no problem."

"And what about me?" Anne Maria cut in, not at all looking optimistic over being used as a distraction. "I gotta get some gold too, ya know."

"Guy would probably lead you to it himself, I'd bet," Scott pointed out. "If you distract him long enough for us to get in and out, then you can just have him bring you to it and meet us back at the harbor."

There was silence, everyone other than Anne Maria seemed to agree that they wouldn't find a better plan than this one. Looking around at her team's expectant faces, she eventually sighed and crossed her arms. "Ugh, fine, I'll go keep the weirdo busy."

With Team Radioactive's appreciative smiles watching her on from their cover, Anne Maria walked out into the open. Ezekiel had just fired a stiletto right at DJ's ribs when he got the feeling that someone was approaching him. He turned around, shoe cannon at the ready, only to falter when he noticed it being Anne Maria.

"Yo, uh, Zeke wasn't it?" Anne Maria chuckled nervously, approaching the feral mutant with the upmost caution. "Long time no see! You, uh, you looking pretty good! You been working out or something?"

Ezekiel stammered some sort of unintelligible gibberish, some of his acidic drool leaking from the side of his mouth. But to Anne Maria's credit, he had otherwise come out of his aggressive mode and was giving her his full attention.

"How abouts you and I walk and talk, really catch up and junk?" Not expecting this to work, she was surprised when Ezekiel grinned and nodded while still grunting his animal-like noises. Cringing, but baring it, she walked off in a new direction while Zeke followed close behind. Once they were out of earshot, the remainder of Team Radioactive jumped out of hiding and made a sprint towards the end of the rainbow.

 ***** Confessional: Anne Maria *****

She shuddered as she applied a fresh coat of hairspray to her massive poof, then moved to check her makeup. "Yo, all I know is this betta mean I'm on everyone's good side after this challenge. Chatterbox getting outed makes me think I'm on the outs on this team, so this should show em what an asset I am."

 ***** In Blarney Forest *****

While Anne Maria had Ezekiel occupied, Team Radioactive located the pot of gold with ease. B tracked the rainbow to the end, and sure enough the cauldron sat there on a log in a clearing. Wasting no time, everyone grabbed a gold Chris coin from the pot and started making their way back to Cork. Meanwhile, Team Old School had regrouped after they noticed Ezekiel was no longer hunting them.

"Where'd Zeke go all of a sudden?" Trent pondered as they too went back to tracking the rainbow. "He was just breathing down our necks, and now nothing?"

"I ain't complaining, I'd say we shouldn't question it and keep going," DJ replied, rubbing his sore ribs with a wince. "I'm guessing he's dealing with one of the other teams at the moment so now's our best chance to pull back ahead."

"Check it out, we found the loot!" Izzy pointed and zoomed past some trees, locating the pot of gold. There were light cheers among the group as everyone picked a coin and started making their own way out of the forest. By the time they were gone, Ezekiel and Anne Maria had just entered the clearing themselves, the former looking on at his crush with a dopey lovestruck grin.

"Aw, thanks for bringing me to the gold! I'm sure you still feel bad for screwing me out of my last season by giving me that fake diamond, so this makes up for it," she said, not trying to sound bitter and condescending but still doing so anyway.

It was as the two began approaching the pot of gold when they suddenly heard a loud fart from nearby. They looked back, spotting Team Explosive who had been in the middle of trying to stealthily sneak to the gold. Though now all other members were glaring at Sugar, as her flatulence had alerted Zeke to their location. Realizing that he had forgotten to keep his head in the challenge, Ezekiel roared viciously and immediately opened fire with the shoe cannon. Team Explosive screamed and ran off, with the mutant hot on their trail. Anne Maria blinked in surprise at the situation, eventually shrugging and grabbing her coin from the pot so she could join her team back at Cork.

Team Explosive gave various screams and distressed noises as they bobbed and weaved out of the way of shoes and acidic vomit. Most were able to keep up the dodging, though Beardo and Rodney's large frames earned them some shoes to the back. Shawn was breathing in and out, trying to keep himself composed.

"Not a zombie, not a zombie," he repeated to himself in a whisper. "He's firing shoes, zombies don't do that. Why would zombies do that? That would just be silly."

"You alright?" Jasmine asked, concerned.

"Never better!" The zombie nut chuckled, peering back at their feral attacker. He was gaining ground, and it didn't help that most of the team was either nonathletic or huge. "We really gotta get this guy off our tail so the others can get their gold. I'm gonna try and keep him busy."

"Well I'm coming with you, we'll really keep him occupied if we're both overwhelming him."

Without time to really explain things to their team, the power couple immediately sprung into action. Shawn rolled out of the way of an army boot, the used the hurley to deflect a croc back at Ezekiel. The shoe hit its mark right on homeschool's nose, prompting a growl in response. Zeke didn't have time to act, since Jasmine followed up by knocking a flip flop into the other side of his head. Watching the two of them retreat into a different direction of the forest, Ezekiel roared and gave chase, leaving the remainder of Team Explosive alone.

"This is out chance, lets circle back and grab the gold!" Sammy lead the charge back towards the end of the rainbow. Amy wasn't too happy about it, but since everyone else was already following her, there wasn't anything that could be done.

Meanwhile, Shawn and Jasmine did their best to disorientate Ezekiel by diverting his attention back and forth between the two of them. He was aggressive and a good shot, but the two of them outclassed him in athleticism and speed. Still, it was quickly becoming apparent that they'd need to figure out how to shake him for good so they too could retrieve their gold and join their team.

"I've got an idea," Jasmine eventually called over to her boyfriend. "It's a bit more on the underhanded side, but..."

"Hey, gotta do what we gotta do," Shawn agreed with a nod. "What are ya thinking?"

Nearly outside the forest, Team Old School felt optimistic as they had pocketed their gold for now and jogged back towards their destination.

"I think Team Radioactive is ahead of us, but as long as we finish before Team Explosive we're golden," Harold reasoned.

"And I don't think that orange girl was with her team since she was busy with Zeke," Leshawna added. "So we might yet have a shot at getting first class."

As the conversation continued among the group, at the back of the pack Beth couldn't help but hear rumblings in the forest behind them getting louder and louder. Looking back out of curiosity, she yelped as two opposing team members suddenly emerged from out of the shrubbery behind her.

"Sorry about this in advance, guys," Shawn said apologetically, before turning around and cupping his hands around his mouth. "HEY, YA NOT-ZOMBIE! COME ON AND GET US ALREADY!"

With that said, he and Jasmine then immediately dove into the bushes. The yell had of course got the attention of everyone on Team Old School, who turned around in time to see Ezekiel jump from tree to tree towards them. He looked around for the survivalist couple, but with them hidden the only ones in his sight now were the first generation team.

"Oh come on, we do NOT have the time to deal with this again," Courtney yelled, preemptively holding up her hurley to try and deflect the incoming projectiles.

"Don't worry, guys, I've got this!" No time to think it over, Izzy dove at Zeke before he could fire up the shoe cannon. The weapon was knocked to the ground and the two began wrestling. He was strong and aggressive, but then again so was Izzy. They were seemingly in a stalemate, rolling back and forth as they put the other in holds. "Just go, I'll catch up once we're done!"

With no time to protest in case Ezekiel wiggled free of her grasp, the rest of Team Old School nodded and took off towards Cork. Anne Maria also emerged out of the forest at this time, giving a dumbfounded look towards the grappling match but otherwise not slowing down. Their job done, Shawn and Jasmine also carefully left their hiding place and went back towards the pot of gold.

 ***** Cockpit Confessional: Jasmine *****

"Yeah, I know it was kind of a jerk move to lead that ankle biter to the other team, but we were behind and needed a way to catch up." She shrugged, using the extra space of the cockpit to actually stretch out a bit.

"Psh, if anything you should be apologetic towards Zeke for leaving him to deal with Izzy," Chef pointed out.

Jasmine snort laughed. "Fair point."

 ***** At Cork Harbor *****

Contestants began finally making their way to the end of the challenge. Team Radioactive was the first on the scene, with the obvious lack of Anne Maria. Scott wasted no time taking a shot and hitting his coin towards his team's pot, but it missed by a fairly large margin. Grunting in annoyance, he began swimming out to retrieve it while the others took a second to think over the best way to try and swing. B especially seemed to be thoroughly testing as he lightly bounced his coin on his hurley, then took note of the light wind and how it would affect things.

"Sha-wack!" The one other example of impatience was Lightning, who just went for it. Unlike Scott, however, his shot was perfect and the coin landed in their team's pot with authority. The others looked at him with dropped jaws while he proudly kissed his biceps for the umpteenth time this episode.

Nodding in approval at Lightning's shot, B then finished his calculations and took a shot of his own. Sure enough, the coin hit the mark and now they were two coins closer to first class. Unfortunately, the remainder of the team missed their shots, forcing them to swim for them just as Scott was almost back to shore.

It was then that Team Old School, lacking Izzy, were next to arrive. They took note of the various members of Team Radioactive in the water, confirming that first class was still a possibility. Anne Maria was also right behind them, getting calls from her team to quickly join them.

"Lets get the lead out, people, we don't need another night in economy class." Courtney was the first of the team to take a shot, the coin very nearly hitting the mark only to bounce off the rim in to the water. Others took their shots, with Cody and DJ also getting very close but in the end all seven coins landed in the water.

From there it was a mad dash to try again over and over. Those that missed swam with all their might, while B tried his best to silently coach his teammates on their swinging method. They were gradually getting better, but while they weren't quite as analytical, Team Old School had Courtney, Harold, and Cody all also helping to try and figure out the best trajectory. The aforementioned trio and Dawn had all also added their coins in to their respective pots when Team Explosive arrived on the scene, obviously lacking Shawn and Jasmine.

"Aaaand, we're in last place," Dave lamented, sighing. "Great."

"None of them are done yet, though," Sammy pointed out. "We can-" She paused, as Beardo wasted no time knocking his coin towards the pot. As luck would have it, the coin hit the mark, surprising even the beatboxer. "Whoa, nice shot Beardo!"

Smiling sheepishly, he held up a thumbs up with accompanying 'ding' sound affect. The others followed the example, swinging their coins at the pot. Most missed, but of all people Sugar's coin hit the mark with what was mostly dumb luck.

"Boom! Just like getting a ring on a bottle at the county fair!"

The competition heated up, with everyone working overtime to be first. Team Radioactive seemed the most confident, not only because B's directions had also landed Dakota and Brick's coins, but also since they were the only team with all members present. Old School wasn't far behind now that Trent and DJ landed their coins, but Team Explosive was doing their best and had landed the coins for Sammy and Rodney.

"We're here!" Everyone looked to the side to see Shawn jogging in to the scene, Jasmine right behind him. The original generation cast scanned the area behind them, paling when they saw no Izzy in sight. Things weren't feeling much better when Shawn immediately nailed the coin shot, knowing how to handle a melee weapon like the hurley better than nearly anyone.

More coins found their mark, first with Jasmine, then Leshawna. Next was Scott, leaving only Anne Maria's coin for their team. Dave finally nailed the shot, leaving only Amy for their team. Then it was Beth's turn, making Team Old School groan since they now only lacked the still missing Izzy's coin.

"Phew, you guys would NOT believe the fight Zeke put up, he's real scrappy let me tell ya." Everyone heard a voice call out from the distance. There was a mix of cheers and worry when they saw the source as Izzy, running up to the scene with the upmost quickness. Amy was part of the distracted when she hit her coin, but somehow the distraction actually worked for the best as she accidentally landed it in the pot.

"Team Explosive wins first class again," Chris called, as he had totally been standing on the sidelines the whole time probably.

Ignoring the cheers from Team Explosive, a sweating B quickly took charge and corrected Anne Maria's positioning and stance to ensure her next wack would hit the mark. Noting the genius doing his thing, Courtney called out to to the final teammate. "Izzy, just go long!"

Nodding at the challenge, Izzy stuck a thumb out to quickly check the wind, then smacked her coin with all her might to send it soaring through the air. Team Old School watched with mouths agape as they saw it zoom through the sky, arcing overhead and landing straight in their pot!

... though it landed mere moments AFTER Anne Maria's coin had landed in Team Radioactive's pot.

"And in a near photo finish, Team Radioactive is safe!" Chris chuckled mischievously. "Team Old School, one of you is done like dinner."

There was a mix of groans and sighs among the original cast team, while Team Radioactive cheered at their safety. Among the cheers, Scott glanced over at the losing team, taking note of Courtney's sour expression.

 ***** On the Jumbo Jet *****

Courtney was walking towards economy class from the dinning room, only to flinch as Scott suddenly ran in front of her.

"Listen, Courtney, I wanted to talk to you before your team goes to elimination." The dirt farmer blocked the doorway, getting an annoyed glare for his troubles. "You know, in case it turns out to be too late and all."

"And just what is THAT supposed to mean?" She crossed her arms, raising an eyebrow at the comment.

"Well, you know, I figured with your attitude and all your team might be voting you off so-"

"I can handle myself just fine, thank you very much," Courtney spat, her glare intensifying and making Scott's expression turn to worry. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go talk strategy, so leave me alone!"

She brushed past her former short-lived boyfriend, with Scott groaning and hitting his head against the wall. "Stupid!"

Trying to immediately forget the confrontation, Courtney entered the economy class to see Trent and Cody in the middle of an argument.

"Come on, dude, that near fall could have been bad news for us, you're lucky I was there to save your skin," Trent pointed out, looking disgruntled.

"It's not my fault I almost fell! It's not like it put us behind, and at least I didn't get nailed by shoes from Zeke as much as you did," the geek shot back, both glaring at each other.

Courtney slid into a seat between DJ and Beth, both of whom were watching the argument curiously.

"I thought you were sure they'd be on the same page?" the brickhouse commented, a hint of sass to his tone.

Courtney shrugged dismissively. "Friends fight all the time, it doesn't mean anything."

"I don't know, they seem pretty mad." Beth winced as the bickering increased in volume between the bandmates, Harold now stepping between them to try and dispel the ruckus. "Maybe they're not as unified as we thought? The Drama Brothers have broken up before, after all."

"That's not a risk we should be willing to take." Sighing, the former CIT glanced over at Izzy, who was watching the argument while snacking on some popcorn she somehow found. "I feel like they're going to target Izzy since she was the last to arrive and caused Cody to almost fall. And like I said, if she goes then the rest of us are sitting ducks."

DJ raised an eyebrow. "A'ight, so who do you think should be voted off instead?"

"Well the thing that makes the potential alliance most threatening is potentially having Leshawna along with it," Courtney pointed out, noticing that the aforementioned sister was now assisting Harold breakup the disagreement. "And the link between the band and her is Harold. Get rid of him and she's back to being a lone wolf, while Trent and Cody become a non-threat."

Beth rolled her eyes. "Of course you think it should be Harold, you're probably still not over what he did way back in season one! Why are you still bitter?"

Courtney scoffed. "I am NOT. I mean, yeah, that was still totally bogus and they should have let me return because of the vote rigging, but I'm long over it. It's purely a strategic choice, nothing more."

"Well Harold probably did the most in the challenge and helped get us in the lead for a bit there, it wouldn't make sense to vote him off when he didn't do anything wrong." DJ crossed his arms. "Personally, I think if we have to vote one of the band off it should be Cody. Dude almost fell off the castle just because Izzy said something crazy. We, of all people, should know not to take what she says seriously at this point."

"Yeah, no offense to him but I think Trent and Harold would both be better to keep around that him," Beth agreed with a nod. "If we're not voting for Izzy, Cody is the next best bet."

"But Harold was only so knowledgeable because his family is FROM Ireland," Courtney pointed out, eyes narrowed. "It's not like we'll go back there later in the season. For the sake of maximizing our safety, Harold is the only logical choice to-"

"Voting time, Team Old School!" Chris' announcement over the intercom cut the Latina off, much to her annoyance. "Let's move those keisters on down to the elimination area!"

 ***** In the Elimination Area *****

"Well well well, you would think our longest tenured contestants would have lasted a bit longer before having to vote someone off." Chuckling, the host lined up seven peanut filled barf bags in front of him. "But since we have Team Victory alumni here, I guess some things never change. Anyhow, the votes have been cast. When I call your name, that means you're safe. The first barf bag goes to... Leshawna!"

Pumping her fist, she gladly caught the symbol of safety once thrown to her.

"DJ, Trent, Beth."

The boys caught their bags with ease, while Beth's first bounced off of her face and landed in her hands.

"And, surprisingly, Courtney. All of you are safe."

Courtney frowned at the comment but none the less was happy to have her name called.

"Also safe tonight is... Cody!"

Sighing in relief, the tech geek caught his barf bag and exchanged a high five with Trent. This earned confused looked from DJ and Beth, and an annoyed one from Courtney. Meanwhile, Harold and Izzy looked on nervously at the final barf bag.

"Look at that, our two teamies of Irish descent in the bottom two together in Ireland! What are the odds?" Noticing that Harold almost seemed ready to answer with the odds, Chris immediately went back to talking. "Rhetorical question, by the way. As I was saying, one barf bag left, and two red headed losers to choose from. The final person safe tonight is...

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

... Harold!"

"Wicked!" The nerd stood up to grab his barf bag, getting cheers and high fives from both Leshawna and his band comrades. DJ and Beth smiled sheepishly at Courtney, who looked at them with an annoyed scowl and folded arms.

"Tch, for real? I was just starting to have some fun around here!" Still smiling despite everything, Izzy stood up and accepted the parachute thrown to her. "Oh well, guess thems the breaks, eh Christopher?"

"I'd like to say I'm sad to see ya go, Izzy, but admittedly I'm kinda glad it was you." Pointing a thumb to the roof with one hand, he opened the hatch with the other. "Think you could take care of business for us on your way out?"

Izzy raised an eyebrow, grinning devilishly. "Depends. If someone gets to return later in the season, can I be given priority?"

The host rubbed his chin in thought, weighing if agreeing to such a deal was worth the benefits. "Tell ya what, I'll definitely _consider_ it."

"Eh, good enough for me." Shrugging, Izzy strapped on her parachute and actually turned around while standing at the edge of the hatch. "Fire away!"

With a click of a button, the Boot of Shame came swinging down. Thanks to her reflexes, Izzy was actually able to jump in time to bounce off of the boot, sending her upwards out of the hatch. On the top of the plane, Ezekiel could be seen crawling his way across the roof. Now back in his normal clothes instead of the leprechaun getup, he nearly made it to a hatch that would allow him to enter the jet. Right as he went to open the hatch, he heard a wild yelling quickly approaching from behind. He turned around just in time to see a green and orange blur tackle him, sending both he and Izzy off the jet and falling to the ground below. Ezekiel's screams echoed through the sky, coupled with Izzy's wild whooping.

"Ah, the peace of mind to know we won't have to deal with THAT GUY this time around." Chris breathed a sigh of relief, smiling. "Another one bites the dust! Can the outsiders of Team Old School recover? Will Courtney keep giving Scott the cold shoulder? Can Team Explosive keep up their dominant winning streak? And who will be next to properly taste the Boot of Shame? Tune in next time to find out, right here on TOTAL... DRAMA... BATTLE OF THE GENERATIONS!"

The episode ended with Ezekiel and Izzy's noises still echoing in the background.

 **Voting Confessionals:**

Beth stamped Cody's passport, looking conflicted. "It's just hard for me to trust Courtney right now, especially since she wants to vote out someone she's always had a vendetta against despite him being really useful this challenge. I won't vote for Izzy, so maybe she'll come around and vote the same as me and DJ?"

"Hehe, me and Trent having a bit of an argument was starting to make me nervous there, but thankfully Harold brought us to our senses." Cody stamped Izzy's passport. "Anyway, Izzy kinda almost made me fall off a castle today, so it's an easy vote for me."

"Ugh, I hope those idiots come to their senses or else we'll be down one outsider and the rest of us will be powerless against the Drama Brothers." Sighing, Courtney gave Harold's passport a stamp. "Like okay, maybe I AM still a bit bitter against Harold, but this is legitimately the smartest thing to do for strategy!"

DJ looked between Harold and Cody's passport, eventually shrugging and stamping Cody's. "It just wouldn't feel right voting off Harold when he pulled the most weight today. I hope Courtney sees that, if she really is that worried about there being an alliance."

"I hate to vote out my fellow Irish teammate considering the location, but between almost making Cody fall and spending too long wrestling around with Zeke, it's the only logical choice." Giving Izzy's passport a stamp, Harold nodded. "Sorry, Izzy. It's nothing personal."

"Courtney rushed up to me on the way to vote being all 'Raawr, we gotta vote out Harold or else we're doooomed." Cackling, the wild child stamped Harold's passport. "She was SUPER freaked out, it was pretty funny. But eh, works for me, only one redhead can reign supreme on this team!"

Leshawna stamped Izzy's passport with no hesitation. "Even if she didn't almost get Cody injured, I'd still probably be voting Izzy anyway. Girl is able to do some crazy things, sure, but it's hard enough to feel safe on this deathtrap of a plane without her around causing more mayhem."

Trent chuckled, casually face palming. "Can't believe I got worked up towards Cody for something so dumb. Thankfully we got it all hashed out. Plus, it wasn't even his fault that he almost fell. It was Izzy's. So, yeah, kind of an easy choice." The musician stamped Izzy's passport.

Votes for Izzy: 4 (Cody, Harold, Leshawna, Trent)

Votes for Harold: 2 (Courtney, Izzy)

Votes for Cody: 2 (Beth, DJ)

 **After the Boot of Shame:**

Izzy continued to whoop and cheer as she somersaulted through the air. "Woohoo, this is so much fun! It always bummed me out that I left World Tour without getting to do the drop, this is so cool! Anyway, yeah, it's a bummer to be out so early, BUT Chris did say I may get priority if someone gets to return. I've only returned, what, three times before? I gotta improve on my record if I want to keep it! You haven't seen the last of Izzy yet!"

Her thought process was interrupted when she suddenly heard wild screaming and grunting. She looked down, seeing Ezekiel also flying through the sky, flailing his arms in terror since he had no parachute. Izzy then caught up, putting an arm around the feral boy while using her other hand to deploy the parachute.

"Yo, Zeke! Long time no see, homeschool." Ezekiel looked on at her in confusion, finding himself unable to wiggle free from her grasp. "Hey, did you know that back in the day some of the fans liked to think we'd be a good couple?"

Zeke recoiled, raising an eyebrow at the comment. "Haha, weird right? Pretty sure I was still together with Big O at the time! Then again, I guess it kinda makes sense. We do both have a bit of a wild side, am I right?"

The two finally landed, Ezekiel able to eventually wiggle free from her grasp and run away. "Hey, where ya going? Oh, up for a game of tag? You're on, Zekey boy!" Chuckling wildly, Izzy gave chase, Zeke's distressed screams echoing ahead.

 **Remaining Contestants:**

 **Team Old School:** Beth, Cody, Courtney, DJ, Harold, Leshawna, Trent

 **Team Radioactive:** Anne Maria, B, Brick, Dakota, Dawn, Lightning, Scott

 **Team Explosive:** Amy, Beardo, Dave, Jasmine, Rodney, Sammy, Shawn, Sugar

 **Elimination Order:**

23rd: Izzy

24th: Staci

 **Author's Note:**

 _Hmm, yes, it seems I got this chapter done a bit quicker than the last one. Consider it a Trick that I was able to give out this Treat right at Halloween. Will the next chapter be out as quick? Who knows, hopefully. The last chapter didn't quite bring in as many reviews as I would have hoped, so I'm hoping getting a quicker chapter out to prove this won't be a "one update a year" story will help bring in more interest._

 _Anyway, yeah, another chapter down and another contestant gone. Eliminating Izzy will probably be a more surprising choice. I like Izzy and she's pretty popular in the fandom, one of those characters I've never really seen anyone dislike. Yet she was fodder when I wrote Total Drama Underdogs, and here she is eating an early boot again. Wassupwitdat? Unfortunately for Izzy, this was just how the dice fell with how I wanted certain storylines and such to play out. I needed one of Old School's non Drama Brothers side to be out first, and Izzy made the most sense. Will she have a chance to return considering her and Chris' conversation on her way out? Maybe, maybe not, who knows if there will even be a returnee to begin with? Well, I know, but the answer remains to be seen for anyone else._

 _So today we visited Ireland. I originally didn't have a solid plan for where to visit this episode, but Ireland was on my short list of "countries definitely getting visited." And once I considered who was getting eliminated this chapter, I figured it would be nice to let Izzy be here for this one. She is canonically Irish, and while I don't know if it's ever explicitly been confirmed for Harold, his last name is of Irish origin. So I figured it was safe to reference both of them being Irish in the chapter. Ezekiel also showed up, because I am apparently incapable of not finding a way to shoehorn in that guy into my stories one way or another. But nah, when I realized I needed a leprechaun for the challenge, I realized he would make more sense than just Chef dressed as one, and it gave potential for shit like the Anne Maria distraction. As for why we went to Cork and not the more well known Dublin, when looking over Irish landmarks and such, I decided I wanted to incorporate the Blarney Stone for sure, and Cork is very close to that. Anyway, to followup on last chapter's note on locations, I'm pleased to say that I now do have all locations planned out. I don't have the full order, just the first 10 episodes, the last two, and a specific horror themed location, but the location pool has been made. That being said, there's a few I'm iffy on, so if I see a suggestion that really gets the almonds activated it's still possible it could be used._

 _I'm looking forward to the next chapter, especially the song since I have a silly plan for it. But I may try to get something done for a different story (or stories) before I make that one. Before starting it I also can't help but wonder if this chapter was too long. The meat of the chapter was just shy of 12,000 words, and crossed that threshold when you factor in After the Boot of Shame. I kind of worry that I'm being too wordy, but I don't really want to shorten my chapters. If it's a problem, maybe I could start doing the "break episodes up into two chapters" meme that others do. Me personally, I look back at some of my short ass Underdog chapters and think to myself "man I could have been more descriptive here," but that's just me. I'm curious to hear what others think._

 _And that about does it for me this time. Keep those predictions and stuff coming, ya don't know how much I love reading them. Was the chapter fun, did the Ezekiel cameo work and will he be the last cameo we see? Guess we'll see as the story continues, so I'll catch you guys at the next one._


	4. Go Kart Calamity

"Previously on Total Drama Battle of the Generations," Chris began in his usual narration. "Our teams touched down in Ireland for a good old fashioned gold hunt! After kissing a stone for luck, Cody nearly fell off a tower, but eh, no pain no gain right? After dealing with our very own leprechaun played by Ezekiel, it was a race to deposit everyone's gold into their own pots. Team Explosive ended up cinching the win once again, while Team Old School lost in a photo finish. At the elimination ceremony, crazy Izzy was voted out for nearly injuring Cody and having a bit too much fun playing around with Zeke. Which didn't sit well with Courtney, now that she, Beth, and DJ find themselves on the outs of their team. What torture is in store next for these victims? Is Team Explosive going to win again? And who's next to get forcefully kicked off the plane? All that and more, right now on TOTAL... DRAMA... BATTLE OF THE GENERATIONS!"

 ***** Opening Credits *****

Things opened sometime after Izzy's elimination, but rather than opening on Team Old School, it opened in the cargo hold. Members from both Team Radioactive and Team Explosive were going through their now routine check to ensure no zombies had found their way on the plane. Shawn was obviously the one taking the search most seriously, but everyone else was mostly doing their best to be thorough. With the exception of Scott, who seemed mildly frustrated to be there.

"Alright, we're getting this knocked out pretty quick today, just a few more boxes in the back there and we can call it a day," Jasmine observed, the group moving towards one of the back corners of the room.

"Having you guys along really speeds this up." Shawn hopped down from a box, landing next to Dawn and Brick. "Thanks again for the help."

"It's no trouble at all!" The cadet smiled, getting to work on searching another crate. "All things considered, it was more than worth it for the help you gave us with B's doohickey."

The silent genius in question flashed a thumbs up, also resuming his search. A nearby Scott rolled his eyes at the exchange, haphazardly looking into a new crate of his own only to wind up screaming as a stowaway raccoon jumped out from within and latched itself to his face.

 ***** Confessional: Scott *****

Scrubbing his face that was now covered in a few claw marks from the raccoon, he looked on in annoyance. "So from what I understand, at the start of the season some of my teammates struck up this weird deal with the Explosive guys to do a 'zombie search' whenever we get back on board." He used air quotes to emphasize the zombie part, scoffing. "It sounds annoying, but the way I see it we got the better end of the deal. They forced the other team into helping Beverly make that thing keeping him from getting disqualified, and all we have to do in exchange is make sure zombies aren't on the plane? Ha! They aren't even real! I mean, if we were searching for an actual monster like werewolves or a wendigo I'd understand, but believing in zombies? That's just dumb."

 ***** In First Class *****

Once the search was over, the members of Team Radioactive were the first to file out of the cargo hold. They had to cut through first class to return to economy, with Brick and B looking on longingly at the snack bar while passing through. Dawn was pretty much stoic, while Scott was dealing with the pain from his claw marks.

"See you guys after the next challenge," Sammy called as they left, a cheerful tone to her voice that seemed to irk her nearby sister. But there was no reason to speak out about it. In general most of those from Team Explosive that didn't contribute to the zombie search were all lounging and relaxing in peace. Though when Shawn and Jasmine finally reentered first class, the conspiracy nut couldn't help but notice a sort of dejected expression from Dave.

"Geez, I'm getting kinda worried about the guy," Shawn said in a low voice so as to not be heard by anyone other than his girlfriend. He motioned his head toward's Dave direction to confirm who he was referring to. "You think he's holding up alright?"

"Well he did end last season on a pretty ugly note," she answered, looking over cautiously at the germaphobe. "Honestly, I'm still a bit on edge around him after how gung ho he got trying to take you and Sky out in the finale."

"To be fair, you contributed a bit to that yourself." Shawn chuckled, elbowing his girlfriend playfully.

Jasmine did a snort laugh, but quickly regained her composure. "Well you got me there, but still he was a little TOO eager to try to injure Sky. It wasn't even about the money with him like it was for me, he came across pretty spiteful."

Shawn looked on, pondering. "I guess, but he did kind of get strung along too. It was just a pretty crappy situation all around. I'm gonna go check in on him, see if he's hanging in there."

Nearby, Dave sighed from boredom as he watched out the window, chin rested in his hand. Only the sound of someone sitting next to him got him to sit up straight and look over. "Oh, hey Shawn. What's up?"

"Just wanted to check in on ya, bromigo." The scruffier boy chuckled awkwardly. "We haven't really had a chance to talk yet this season, and I was just hoping you were doing ok."

Dave shrugged. "I guess. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well... Pahkitew Island did end kind of awkwardly. And while Jasmine and I don't really use social media, Sammy mentioned fans have been pretty hard on you after everything with-" Shawn stopped himself, realizing the potential awkwardness of it all.

"Everything with Sky?" Dave finished, sighing. "Yeah, it's been rough. But I'm trying to move away from it, it's in the past ya know? I'm fine, honest." His friend smiled hearing this, prompting a small smile from Dave as well.

 ***** Confessional: Dave *****

"Ok, that was a lie. I'm NOT doing fine. Do you have any idea how relentless people have been towards me after that falling out with Sky?" He groaned louder than ever, burying his face into his hands. "Here I am, the VICTIM that had his heart played with all season, and all I ever hear is how everything is my fault! Like yeah, I made my mistakes and should have heard her out more, but cut a guy some slack! Now I can't go a day at school without hearing, 'Hey look, it's friendzone Dave!' 'How's it hanging, Dave the dateless?' 'Watch out everyone, Dave the Incel is coming through!'"

Glaring at the camera, he folded his arms. "What does incel even mean? Totally a made up word. But I am telling the truth when I say I want to move past this. The sooner people stop remembering me just for my thing with Sky, the better."

 ***** Outside the Confessional *****

As Dave exited the confessional, he bumped into Beardo as he was attempting to leave a message of his own. Being the smaller of the two, the impact knocked Dave to the ground with a grunt.

"W-whoops. Sorry man, didn't know you were in there." Beardo offered a hand to help his teammate up, which he hesitantly accepted.

"Huh, so you CAN talk." Dave dusted himself off. "It's fine, the confessional is all your's."

With his scrawnier teammate returning to first class, the beatboxer looked on with a smile. "Hey, that wasn't so hard. Might just get the hang of these social interactions yet."

However, upon turning around it was Beardo's turn to fall to the ground, as he turned to see Harold suddenly in front of him and the startling of the appearance caught him off guard. Though Harold was smiling and also offered a hand to help him up. "Beardo, right? I've been meaning to talk to you since the season started."

"F-for real?" Beardo replied, flustered since he had spent even less time around the older competitors. "What for?"

"After I saw Pahkitew Island I checked out your album," Harold explained, eyes glowing with excitement. "Now I've always considered myself something of a mad beatbox legend, so take it from me when I say you have some of the maddest skills I've ever heard!"

"You're serious?" Beardo smiled. "Shoot, that means a lot coming from you."

"For sure! I've been meaning to talk to you since I think we could totally make some wicked stuff together." Harold took notice of Beardo's shocked expression. "You know, if you'd want to. Be it with the Drama Brothers or like a purely beatbox album."

 ***** Confessional: Beardo *****

"Geez, talk about a blindside." He scratched at his afro, looking out the window. "I mean I've always wanted to elevate my music career, but Harold and his boys have been on world tours and junk. This is a lot to take in at once, man."

 ***** Confessional: Harold *****

"I've got a lot of plans this season. Beardo is probably the most talented musician I've seen on the show since me and the boys, and those sound effects of his could help give us an even more unique sound. And yeah, I think if the two of us made a pure beatbox album, it would be some straight fire." Trying to look cool, he crossed his arms and leaned back in his seat. "But even past the band stuff, this is gonna be the season where Leshawna and I finally happen! Groupies are one thing, but no girl has ever stole my heart like her. Add in winning this thing, and I'm seeing big things for me this time around."

 ***** In Economy Class *****

The unpleasant sound of static filled the room as the intercom roared to life. "Get your game faces on, passengers! We'll be touching down in Kyoto shortly for your next challenge. Look sharp!"

"First Ireland, and now we're going back to Japan? Awesome!" Harold exchanged a high five with Cody. "And this time no Alejandro to mess with my mojo."

"Hopefully this time we actually get to enjoy what the country has to offer," Cody added. "World Tour's Japan challenge was kinda lame."

As the two nerds began a Japan themed conversation that turned to video games and anime, nearby a disgruntled Courtney sighed. Beth and DJ took quick notice.

"So, uh, sorry that we didn't listen to you about the whole Drama Brothers thing," Beth meekly stated, twiddling her thumbs nervously.

"Yeah, we really underestimated the fact that they'd be voting together," DJ added, rubbing the back of his head. "My bad."

Sighing once again, the former CIT shook her head. "It's fine. I know I haven't exactly built up the best reputation over the years so I'm sure you two had reason not to listen to me. We'll just have to keep going and try not to get eliminated now that Izzy is gone."

"But what are we gonna do if they outnumber us?" The geeky farmer was growing more nervous, fearing that she'd be at the bottom of the food chain among her and the other outsiders. "Between the three of them and Leshawna we're kind of screwed."

"We'll worry about that when we come to it. For now we focus on winning so it isn't an issue." Glancing over at the Drama Brothers, Courtney took notice of the still ongoing Japan talk. "We have two Japan loving nerds on our team, hopefully that'll help us out. At the very least, let's hope it gets us to avoid last place."

 ***** Somewhere in Kyoto, Japan *****

Some time later, the plane had successfully landed at their destination and the contestants were led to the start of their challenge. They found themselves outside a large traditional Japanese looking building, with brown slanted roofing. Chris emerged from off screen, decked out in his best monk attire. This included a black set of monk robes, wooden sandals, and a circular straw hat.

"Welcome to Kyoto, the cultural capital of Japan, and the former capital of the country as a whole," the host began, motioning towards the nearby building. "Right now we're at the imperial palace. This building here is where they used to hold all their fancy schmancy state ceremonies before they moved the capital over to Tokyo. You'll actually be visiting a bunch of historical sites like this over the course of the challenge, which will be a spiritual successor to Revenge of the Island's graffiti tagging race."

"You want us to deface beautiful cultural landmarks with spray paint?" Dawn looked both shocked and appalled at the idea. "Surely you can't be serious, the city would never allow you to let us do that."

"You're right, unfortunately. So instead of tagging each landmark with spray paint, you'll instead be planting one of these easily peeled off stickers on team signs at each." Chris held up an example sticker, which depicted the host in a chibi anime style, complete with large eyes and flashing the peace sign. Chef, clad in purple samurai attire, passed out stickers to everyone. Similarly, everyone's stickers depicted them in exaggerated chibi style. While they were mostly flattering, certain details like Dave's chibi self crying and Courtney's depicting her with devil horns earned noises of disapproval.

"Yo, these things are pretty stylin," Anne Maria noted, approving of the curvy features on her stickers. "Can we get some of these to keep?"

"Sure, if you go to the merch website after the season and buy them like anyone else," Chris answered, grinning.

There were some annoyed groans, with Sugar being the one to vocally express her frustration. "Y'all would think they'd treat us better and give us our own merch for free if they're selling stuff that looks like us."

"Bold of you to assume we won't cut costs wherever possible." Whether everyone enjoyed their chibi self or not, once they were all passed out Chris continued his rundown. "You'll be visiting five historic sites where you must place your sticker. First Kinkaku-ji, otherwise known as the Golden Palace. Then Arashiama, the monkey infested bamboo forest. After that we have Nijo Castle, pretty self explanatory, and then Toji Temple which houses the country's tallest pagoda. Finally, you'll end your race at the Fushimi Inari shrine. Ya can't miss it, you'll know you're there when you see a bunch of endless red gates. First team to get all stickers stuck at each site wins first class. And as should be obvious by now, the team that does it last is kicking someone out."

"Didn't we JUST do a race challenge two episodes ago?" Jasmine pointed out, arms folded. "You'd think there'd be a bit more variety before we did another one."

"I'll have you know this one is _totally_ different," Chris insisted, taking a key from out of his pocket and twirling it around his finger. "For example, instead of everyone riding together in a snowmobile, you'll all be riding separately in go karts. But these aren't just any normal go karts, because as you're racing you may see squares with a question mark on the path. Drive over one, and it'll outfit your kart with some sort of weapon. They could be as useful as a bomb, to as useless as a banana peel!"

"Hey, I've actually played this game before," Brick objected. "And those banana peels aren't useless, they take me out all the time!"

Ignoring the interruption, Chris finished up his explanation. "So first things first, all you guys have to do is find the key to your go kart somewhere here at the palace grounds. Once you have the key in hand, you can find the go karts right outside. They're decked out with a GPS so you'll know which way to drive."

"Searching for keys doesn't sound too stressful," Trent pointed out to his team in a whisper, everyone grouped in a huddle. "This should be easy."

"You bring up a good point, Trent," Chris yelled, sticking his head into the huddle and startling the members of Team Old School. "So instead of just letting the viewers watching you key hunt, we'll keep you occupied with something else in the meanwhile."

 *** DING DING DING ***

"A'ight, seriously, we should be the last part of the cast that forgets he can jinx us," Leshawna noted, shooting an annoyed side eye Trent's way. The musician could only smile sheepishly.

"Less talking, more singing," Chris commanded with a clap of his hands. "Preferably something Anime-y. Hit it!"

* * *

Harold was the one starting us off, while on screen the flash of a blue circle gave way to a red cloudy backdrop. An outline of the season's logo appeared and faded into the background. _"We are searching for a precious go kart key,"_ he sung quiet and somberly despite the mundane lyrics. On screen the text 'Fresh TV' displayed in white, and above it was the name translated to Japanese.

 _"Once we find one then we can drive awaaaay,"_ he continued, now with Leshawna joining him in song. The red background changed to a blue one, and a sort of tree outline appeared. It quickly panned up the tree, each branch leading to a logo of a former Total Drama season with the current season's at the top. The tree quickly faded away, returning to white text that now said 'Project Drama' on the top and the Japanese translation on bottom.

As soon as the two had finished their line, the background went to black as the music swelled with brass accompaniment. In bold white text read 'Total Drama,' and below that in orange was Japanese that translated to 'Battle of the Generations.'

Now it was Trent's turn to sing, and against the backdrop of a blue partly cloudy sky, a faded zoom in of Trent's face looked off into the distance. His face slowly turned to the right as he sung. _"We'll leave the others in awe, while we burn some rubber here in Kyoto."_ Halfway through his line a pitch black Trent silhouette stood towards the right, fading when he finished.

As this all was going on Japanese credits would pop up here and there, though when translated they were all credits towards Chris for things like 'Best Hair,' and 'Hottest Host.' When the Trent silhouette disappeared, two new ones appeared on each side of the screen. On the right floating up was a silhouette of Beardo, and on the left was an upside down one of B sinking down.

 _"They'll be in the dust when we go, no time for delay,"_ Beardo sang.

 _"WE'LL WIN WITH THE SPEED OF A CHEEEETAH,"_ B added from his singing device.

Trent's face finally faded away, now replaced with another silhouette. This one was a zoom in of Lightning's arm, while the sky background turned a shade of orange. _"Easy win, them losers are slow,"_ the jock sang, his silhouette inexplicably making the circle game symbol, effectively making all viewers at home lose the game. Meanwhile that season tree symbol quickly appeared and faded again.

 _"That's big talk when our team keeps winning the day,"_ Sugar pointed out, a faded zoom in of her face similar to Trent's looking forward. To the right of that was one of those black silhouettes of the pageant queen, which disturbingly leaned back in an attempted seductive way. Meanwhile the face of Sugar looked up.

With that horrific sight gone, next was one of the silhouettes of Courtney. She was sat on the ground, her head on her knees and arms wrapped around them. She eventually looked up while a returning Trent head stared off and drifted to the left. _"Is there a key in this pond, or hid behind a bonsai?"_

While Courtney sang the last line alone, Scott joined her for the next. Meanwhile Courtney's silhouette disappeared and a new image appeared of Scott standing behind a window, looking at the camera. _"Or is one hidden up in a tree!"_

Next was a quick succession of different shots. First a zoom in of Scott's eye. Then a shot of the jumbo jet turbine. Next a shot of the jet's side, displaying the aviator Chris symbol. The broken clock in the plane's dining area. Last a shot of Chef pushing the plane's controls forward, making it go into a dive.

 _"We'll search here and search there, we'll look high and look low,"_ Beth and Cody sang in tandem, though the visuals didn't match much since we had now moved to a shot of Chef in some sort of body suit and in a bizarre pilot seat. It zooms in on his eyes and he looks up at the camera, determined.

 _"Our sleuthing will leave you in awe,"_ sung Jasmine and Shawn together. Meanwhile, some sort of shadowy robot began to rise into frame, with intense glowing eyes. This was followed by four quick shots. First of Beth, adjusting her glasses like an anime villain. Next was Jasmine, giving the camera a determined glare. Afterwards came Cody, with a simple smile. Last we had Shawn, who stoically looked on with no emotion.

It was after these shots that it was revealed the mysterious robot from earlier was non other than the Jumbo Jet, now in mecha form and presumably still being piloted by Chef. It twitched violently, while now Amy and Rodney sung over it. _"Our mind's on the challenge so please mind the singing."_

 _"We're making this up as we goooo,"_ added Anne Maria and Dakota, the four of them stretching out the note while the Jumbo Jet mecha seemed to sprout many energy wings.

It was at this point the video portion of the song became almost entirely incomprehensible, being a multitude of back to back quick shots. This started with many shots of the mech, its mouth opening, one arm raising, its eyes glowing, and a shot of its hand covered in blood. But because this was a PG show and realistic blood was no bueno, the blood had been colored pink.

The text 'Chris McLean' flashed on screen while Brick continued the song. _"And yet we push on, no matter what dumb things we say."_ While he sung more rapid fire shots went by. The now bloody foot of the mech. The text 'Jumbo Jet' flashed by. The mecha shot up and seemed to roar. A close up of a creepy Chris mask. The mech standing in the distance behind a fiery foreground. Just straight up the sun. Text saying 'Brilliant Sadistic Host.'

 _"We'd rather not sing, but our contracts force us to,"_ DJ continued while more craziness went by. A pan up of an annoyed Courtney. Text that said 'Hot Chicks.' City skyline view of Toronto. Text that said 'Made in Canada.' A shot of the icy Antarctica landscape. A quick red logo that said 'Hot Dudes Too,' followed by shots of Trent, DJ, Shawn, Lightning, and Scott. A shot of Jasmine at the end stopped the combo. Shots were changing so fast at this point that things like the season's map, the first class cabin, some weird eye things, and a shot of a smirking Chris were easily missed.

 _"Chris makes these dumb rules, if only he would go away,"_ now sang Sammy. The continued myriad of rapid shots went by. A sinister shot of Amy wearing a visor. A sign fully in Japanese, that when translated rewarded viewers with the message 'Congrats, you wasted your time translating this.' A sketching of Rodney. Some sort of mystery meat Chef meal. A shot of Chris' mouth and hands folded. A new shark like mecha, which was followed by a text screen that said 'Fang.' After that was a purple ape like robot, which then saw the text 'Sasquatchanakwa.' Footage of Dawn looking serious. Sammy wincing, then looking to the side to yell. Shots of DJ, then Harold, then Leshawna. A huge shot of wreckage. The Jumbo Jet mech firing a gun, then an explosion knocking it back. Chris looking on, menacingly.

 _"Let's just find these keys, tell this place sayonara,"_ Dave sang as a final burst of back to back shots continued. Dave himself was the first shot, him crying next to a duffel bag. Next was, oddly enough, a pan by of a shirtless Cody. A zoom in on Lightning's necklace. Red text saying 'Boot of Shame.' The glowing silhouette of one of the mechs. The earth itself, being struck by some large impact. Dakota sitting with her arms around her legs, next to a glass of water. A sketch of Trent. One of the mechs glaring at the camera. Text that now said 'Barf Bags.' Anne Maria looking down at the ground seriously. The elimination area. Izzy standing up and looking off into the distance somehow, despite not being in the game anymore. And finally, a sketch of Shawn, with Jasmine to his left and Sammy to his right.

Dawn was the final contestant to have a dedicated line, starting while Japanese text filled the screen that when translated came out to, 'Wow this part took way longer to write that you'd think, didn't it?' The Jumbo Jet mecha struck a pose while a faded image of Chef in the bodysuit came towards the screen, all while Dawn sang. _"Because this is part 1, there's more challenge to get to."_

 _"Will it be safe? Probably not but let's pray!"_ The final line was sang by everyone together, with the video portion ending on various shots of Chef. Looking up in determination, crying, shielding his eyes from blinding light, and finally an almost creepy smile.

* * *

With that... ordeal finally finished, we returned to see the entirety of the cast now outside of the imperial palace. They all had keys in hand and had taken their place inside their go karts to await Chris' signal. Some were looking a bit disheveled, with Cody in particular sporting some scratches and bruises.

"And just like that through the power of editing, it looks like everyone has their keys without us having to show you all getting them," the host cheered, joining the cast.

"Wait, you're not going to show any of the key hunt?" Cody asked, flabbergasted. He held out his arm, revealing even more cuts. "I had to go through some serious crap to get mine!"

"Whoa, that's interesting. But I sure don't care!" Promptly ignoring the tech geek, Chris motioned down the road they would be taking. Their GPS' flashed on to reveal their path, leading to the first marker at the Golden Palace. They also noticed a few squares with a question mark along the path, with the first being close enough that they could see it up ahead. On the road, it was merely a painted square.

"Your karts have a sensor on the bottom to know when you've driven over an item block," Chris explained, as if he knew many of them were wondering how this was going to work. "So simply drive over one and you'll be given a random item. Miss the square and that sucks for you, as you'll get nothing."

"We should wait and let the others take the lead," Harold whispered to his team. "In the game you get better items the farther back you are. If we can take them out early it'll hopefully give us a wide enough lead."

"Lets book it and stay on our toes," Shawn directed towards the others. "Things are going to stay hectic and the items could change things on a dime, so we don't really have any reason to dillydally."

Meanwhile with Team Radioactive no one was really making any plans, they all seemed content to do their own things. Only Lightning felt the need to give words of encouragement. "Y'all just be sure to sha-keep up." Well, at least he thought they were encouraging.

"On your marks," Chris started, holding up the airhorn. "Get set. Go kart!"

With a blast of the horn, everyone was off. Teams Radioactive and Explosive took off at high speeds, but per Harold's suggestion Team Old School waited a few seconds before also starting. Things became instantly cramped as the various karts barreled through the streets of Kyoto, even more so as the first item block approached. B and Scott seemed to have the same idea as both rammed Dave and Sammy out of the way respectively just as they were about to drive over the mark, causing them to miss getting an item.

"Not too shabby, Beverly." While Scott had attempted a genuine compliment, B's scowl gave the impression he had missed the mark. "Er, B."

Looking down at his screen, the devious farmer saw that he had been given what appeared to be a green turtle shell as an item. Curious, he clicked an arrow facing backwards which caused his kart to shoot the item behind him. Just as an unsuspecting Dave tried to catch up, the shell came flying back and sent him screeching off track with a yell.

B observed the item usage, noting how things seemed to work pretty much exactly as they did in Mario Kart itself. His screen displayed the banana, so when he looked back as Jasmine behind him preparing to fire a shell of her own, he was ready. Once she fired the weapon, he deployed the banana peel behind him in the nick of time. The shell somehow shattered against the peel, leaving the silent genius none the worse.

In general things were getting chaotic. Shawn had been lucky enough to receive the red shell, so without needing to aim he easily hit Brick in front of him. Anne Maria had been given three of the bananas, which she promptly dumped all behind her. Amy had little time to react before spinning out as she drove over one. Beardo and Dakota both received the triple green shells, and somehow all three of their respective items shattered against the other's as they attempted to hit the other driver.

At the front of the pack was Lightning, who was initially confused when his screen displayed a coin. Sure enough, his kart made a belching sound effect and spat out a coin into the jock's face. It was a simple gold coin with Chris' smiling face on one side and a picture of the Jumbo Jet on the other. Effectively worthless, but he was none the wiser. "Sha-score! Lightning is getting richer already!"

But now chaos was truly about to unfold as the members of Team Old School crossed the item block. While some merely got triple bananas or shells, Cody was the first to get a true game changer. The bomb. Smirking, he lobbed the bomb forward, just missing Sugar who squealed in shock at the explosion.

"Hey! Why the heck didn't this dumb thing give me one of those?"

She didn't have much time to complain as one of Leshawna's three shells nailed the pageant queen in the back, spinning her out. DJ had received three mushrooms, which gave him a wicked speed boost. But Harold was most satisfied, as he was shown an image of a blue spiked shell with wings.

"How are they getting away with using these images without dealing with copyright laws?" he pondered out loud, touching the screen to deploy. "Oh well, enjoy this whoever's in first!"

From the front of his kart it shot the blue shell into the air. Unlike the games it was clearly mechanical of some sort, as it whirred loudly while soaring over the various racers. In particular, Brick looked above in shock. "Uh oh. Lightning, watch your six! Enemy strike is inbound!"

Unfortunately for the cadet his warning fell on deaf ears. Or rather, Lightning just wasn't paying attention to anything other than trying to remain in first. For what it was worth, Rodney was on his tail and keeping him distracted. This was about to end badly for both of them.

"What the heck is that noise?" Rodney asked, looking up in time to see the blue shell hover overhead once it was above Lightning.

"What are you blabbering about back there, country boy?" The turbo jock turned his head to look back at Rodney, but in a flash the blue shell suddenly came careening downward right on top of him. The impact caused an explosion that took out not only Lightning, but Rodney as well. Both boys were knocked to the ground in a daze, their go karts on their sides next to them while they groaned in agony.

"Booyah! A direct hit." Harold exchanged a quick high five with a passing Trent as the squad inched closer and closer to the other teams. Nearby, Courtney smirked mischievously.

 ***** Confessional: Courtney *****

"Eh, taking out two enemies is alright I guess. But how about taking out all of them?"

 ***** In the streets of Kyoto *****

Courtney looked down at her screen, displaying a lightning bolt. "Don't look know, guys. I think the other teams just had a change in forecast!" Hitting the item, suddenly everyone on teams Explosive and Radioactive saw a flashing lightning bolt symbol on their own screen. However, this one was much larger and accompanied by a beeping noise.

"This... seems like it's going to suck," Sammy observed ominously. Sure enough, the rapidly increasing beeping came to a climax. Since they had no way to cause actual lightning bolt clouds to appear above everyone, instead all of the karts for Team Radioactive and Team Explosive became electrified. Many screams of pain filled the streets as the electrocuted contestants spun out wildly. This was especially unfortunate for Lightning and Rodney, who had only just flipped their karts back into position and got in.

When it was all said and done, Team Old School had found themselves in the lead. They maintained it all the way to Golden Palace, and as they drove up they noticed three wooden signs planted before the building. Each had a team logo at the top and eight squares, almost all of which were empty save for one spot on Radioactive's sign with a chibi Staci sticker and a similar square on Team Old School's with an Izzy sticker.

"We're killing it," Beth cheered, the first to jump from her kart to slap her sticker into one of her team's squares. One by one everyone else did the same before returning to their vehicle. "Lets keep this up, guys!"

As that team left, the others starting piling in one by one. It became quite cluttered in front of the palace as many karts parked at once while the drivers put their stickers on, turning their vehicles into bumper cars as they tried to get back into the race.

 ***** Confessional: Dakota *****

"I've played this game with Sam a few times. If there's one thing he taught me about it, it's to not sweat it if you get behind early on. More often than not, things start to go badly for whoever is near the front."

 ***** In the streets of Kyoto *****

Because the stretch between the palace and bamboo forest was one of the longest of the race, there were two item block spaces en route to the next destination rather than just one. As expected, when Team Old School went over the first one they received mostly standard items. DJ and Leshawna were the least lucky since they just received the coin.

Many opposing team members started to close the gap when they received mushrooms from the item block, but others weren't far behind. Brick raised an eyebrow curiously when his item revealed itself to be a picture of a squid. "Hey, isn't this one kinda useless? What gives?"

Pressing the button anyway, all the opposing team members were alerted with a blinking picture of the item similar to the lightning bolt. But this time, rather than become electrified, a nozzle flipped up from the dashboard and sprayed everyone in the face with ink.

"Gross gross gross," Dave screamed frantically, letting go of the wheel to try and wipe away the ink and sending him off road into a tree. Others from Old School and Explosive got similarly sent off course thanks to the ink in their eyes, which was now putting Team Radioactive near the front of the pack. Cheers were exchanged among the new leaders as they approached the second item block. Meanwhile, after a few seconds had passed a new nozzle appeared for those affected by the ink, spraying them with water to wash it away.

Shenanigans continued to ensue with the second item block passing. Shells were flying, banana peels soaring, bombs flung. Lightning sent a green shell backwards that was getting ready to strike Beardo, but lucky for the beatboxer he had received a star from the item block. Upon clicking it his kart began to glow and a sort of electrified force field surrounded him that protected from any item. The shell shattered harmlessly against the force field, and it also allowed him to drive over a banana peel with no issue. Chuckling at the lucky break, Beardo did a perfect imitation of the Mario star theme for as long as it lasted.

Near the front of the pack Dawn was driving relatively peacefully, using her items mostly to deflect rather than go on the offensive. Suddenly a banana peel was tossed in front of her kart, much too quick for her to react in time. She spun out, looking around to see who the culprit thrower could be. It was only after hearing an animal-like cackle that she gazed up to realize the one responsible was a monkey hanging from the bamboo. As it continued to laugh at causing Dawn's wipeout, more monkeys appeared from within the bamboo. Each threw their own banana peels, raining down on the course in front of the unsuspecting contestants. While some did their best to swerve out of the way, most fell victim to the potassium based assault and swung out of control. The more chaos caused for the teams, the more the monkeys cracked up at watching.

 ***** Confessional: Dawn *****

"What mischievous creatures," she said with a smile, petting a monkey that had somehow found its way into the confessional with her. "But then again, considering the things monkeys usually like to throw at others, it could have been much, MUCH worse."

The monkey chuckled in agreement, wiggling its eyebrows.

 ***** In the streets of Kyoto *****

While the drivers did their best to get past the banana littered chaos in the bamboo forest, Team Radioactive found themselves at the front. Perhaps it was due to Dawn's presence, but regardless they were the first to reach the second sign and plant their stickers.

"Three more to go, let's move it along people," Anne Maria cheered on, everyone returning to their vehicles and setting course for Nijo Castle. Team Old School was the next team to reach the forest signs, with Team Explosive not far behind.

"Geez, we're still pretty behind," Jasmine noted, the first of her team to plant a sticker while the others rushed to follow. "We really gotta pick up the pace."

"Well being in last means we should have better items," Sammy pointed out. "So it's not over yet!"

With everyone now on their way to the next checkpoint it was a mad dash to the next item block. Once again the stretch between destinations was long, so two item blocks were passable on the way to the castle. Shells and bananas flew between Team Old School and Radioactive, distracting them while Team Explosive got their turn with the items. Sugar raised an eyebrow when she was given a picture of a fireball. Clicking it curiously, it shot a single fireball forward that harmlessly extinguished when it failed to hit no one.

"Well shoot, it gave me something useless, what a dud!"

"Sugar you can use those over and over," Shawn replied. "Just button mash."

"Oh." Grinning, the pageant queen cracked her knuckles and hovered a finger over the button while the other hand steered. "Out of the way, y'all! Sugar's bout to smoke them harder than a roadkill dinner."

Her teammates complied and veered out of the way from Sugar's wrath. The country girl let it rip and button mashed as hard as she could manage. A flurry of fireballs were shot from her kart, and while many shots missed, the sheer amount of attacks ensured they were hitting the marks. As the fireballs connected to enemy karts it not only spun them out but often ignited clothing, causing the shocked drivers to try and mash out the flames in a panic. Once they were ahead of the pack, Amy dropped a bomb behind her that helped widen the gap as the explosion stopped some of the fire victims from recovering.

Now Team Explosive was at the front when the second item block was passed over. Team Old School was trailing behind, but a certain team member grinned when he noticed how closely together the leading team was racing.

"How nice of them to bunch together so snugly," Cody observed, chuckling as he deployed a blue shell. "Here's a little present for their teamwork."

The blue shell soared through the air, making a beeline for Jasmine as she was the one in the lead. Many of her teammates gasped when they noticed the item hovering above her head, but somehow she could only smirk.

"Sorry, mate," she yelled back, clicking her screen just as the blue shell prepared to explode on top of her. She deployed a loud horn, producing a shockwave strong enough to harmlessly shatter the blue shell and prevent an explosion. "But you'll have to do better than that!"

Unmoved by the enemies, Team Explosive were the first to arrive at Nijo Castle. Crossing moats and going through the inner walls to find the third set of signs in front of a palace building, they quickly planted their stickers and returned to the race. Team Radioactive followed close behind, and Team Old School wasn't far off. While the placements were visible, it was still anybody's race. The stretch to the Toji temple was much shorter than the last two, and as such there was only a single item block. This one had to count.

As the item space approached Team Explosive was at the clear disadvantage. Three of their members got the useless coin as their item, so the others had to make their defensive resources count. Beardo, Beth, Trent, Anne Maria, and Rodney were among those stuck by shells. B was unable to react in time to avoid a banana peel that had been precisely tossed in front of him by Courtney. Even after a lightning bolt from Lightning himself seemed to turn the tides, two bomb throws Sammy and Cody kept things even. As the chaos subsided, things were pretty even and the teams grouped closer together.

 ***** Confessional: Leshawna *****

"Ya know, I've never been much for video games. But as it turns out, when you go from racing on the TV to doing it in the streets with explosives and crap involved, I can kinda see the appeal."

 ***** In the streets of Kyoto *****

With everyone pretty much mashed together with no definite team now in the lead, most made it to the Toji temple checkpoint at the same time. The signs were in front of the five story pagoda, and much pushing and shoving was involved as people dismounted to put their stickers on their respective team's sign. All that remained was the finish line checkpoint at the Fushimi Inari Shrine. As it turned out, it wasn't too far away, so only one final item block remained between the contestants and the end of the race.

Of particular note while the racers made their way to the final destination was a chorus of loud cheers coming from the streets. Odd, considering how they had mostly been empty throughout the challenge. The source of the cheers seemed to be from a group of Japanese school girls, all clad in black and white uniforms. They were most excited to see Trent, Cody, and Harold, nearly screaming as they pointed at them.

"It's the Drama Brothers," one with long black hair cheered.

"They're so cool," another with short brown hair added.

"They speak oddly fluent English," Cody pointed out in a whisper to Trent, who nodded in agreement. It was then that the guitarist felt an addition of weight to his vehicle. He looked to his side to find a grinning schoolgirl with pigtails flinging her arms around his neck.

"Marry me, Trent!"

Before Trent could even respond, a banana peel from up ahead somehow came flying back and nailed the girl in the face. She was sent flying from the kart, to who knows where. All Trent could do was shrug. "Welp, guess that takes care of that."

 ***** Confessional: Trent *****

"Fangirls. Let me tell ya, the life of a music star isn't always so easy. Especially these days after we got back together. Is it me, or were the fans we had last time... more normal? These new ones insist that we keep calling them Stan for some reason? I don't really get it. They keep trying to 'cancel' anyone that doesn't like out music, whatever that means. In general they seem way more ravenous than they used to, way more unhinged than the last batch." He tapped his finger to his chin, looking deep in thought. "Then again, Sierra was one of our original fans, so maybe I just wasn't paying as much attention back then."

 ***** In the streets of Kyoto *****

Many people were now bumping into enemy team members, trying in vain to send them off course. Glares were sent, insults flung, and tempers flared. Things were almost entirely neck and neck as the final item space approached. Most preemptively hovered their finger above their screens, ready to let loose whatever weapon they got. This would prove to be a mistake as many various shells and peels were shattered before they could be used when two more bombs went off courtesy of Brick and Sugar.

As the smoke settled, anyone with a mushroom immediately used it to jump right back into the fray. Things were mostly still neck and neck, but six contestants in particular now found themselves trailing behind the rest as they had been at the epicenter of the explosions. Exchanging glances, Harold, Leshawna, Scott, Dakota, Shawn, and Jasmine knew the race was coming down to them. And as luck would have it, they all each still had an item.

Finally the Inari shrine approached, sending the racers through countless red gates. The finish seemed to be at the top of the mountain at the site of a former shrine. Things were tense but otherwise quiet as the six racers trailing behind were sizing up the right time to use their final item. Shawn glanced over at his girlfriend, silently mouthing 'What item?' at her. Making sure the others couldn't see her, she silently mouthed back 'Banana. You?' Since Harold now seemed to be looking at them, the zombie nut instead made a subtle zooming motion with his hand to indicate he had a mushroom.

Meanwhile, Harold and Leshawna has tried to communicate through hand signs that they had a green and red shell respectively. Dakota also had a green shell while Scott had a bomb, though neither had communicated as much to the other. With the finish coming up sooner rather than later, it was the sister with 'tude that decided to act first.

"Alright, white boy," she called to Shawn, as he was the one in front of her. "Let's see you try and dodge this."

As she prepared to deploy the red shell, the zombie nut quickly assumed that would be the item she had thanks to her phrasing. "Jasmine, quick, drift in front of me and drop your thing. I have a plan."

"What, getting yourself hit with that instead of her shell?"

"Just trust me, I got this."

Not sure what he was planning but trusting him regardless, Jasmine got in position in front of her boyfriend and dropped her banana moments after Leshawna had sent the red shell Shawn's way. He glanced back to confirm the attack coming towards him and drove straight at the peel. "Three... two... one... now!"

Just inches away from the peel, Shawn steered wildly towards the right before roughly correcting his path. Because the shell had also been mere inches behind him, it didn't have enough time to hone in on Shawn's new direction as it shattered harmlessly against the banana. Once Shawn had corrected his direction and got behind his girlfriend, he deployed the mushroom to push himself into her kart and send them both screeching ahead of the others. The speed boost widened the gap quite a bit, effectively putting them far enough away to ensure they would win before the remaining four.

"Well crap," Leshawna grumbled, looking back to see Scott and Dakota on their tail and her now without an item. "This can't be good."

"Yeah, sorry but you're right." Grinning, Dakota shot her green shell at her opponent. Leshawna braced for impact, only to hear a screech of tires and the sound of a different kart spinning out. Opening her eyes, she saw that Harold had swerved into the shell's path, preventing it from hitting his crush.

"Harold, baby, you alright?"

"I'm fine!" Once he was done spinning out the geek corrected himself and took off. Though he was now solidly at the back of the pack with Dakota and Scott between him and Leshawna. "I've got this, just finish the race."

Nodding, Leshawna focused on making it to the end. By now most from the front of the race had made it past the finish line and planted stickers on the final checkpoint. Shawn and Jasmine were close, and once they did their part it would ensure another victory for their team. By now those that finished were cheering on their teammate, hoping to at least avoid elimination.

"Sorry, dork, but any plans you had to catch up are about to blow up in your face," Scott taunted back at his fellow ginger, grinning wickedly as he prepared to deploy the bomb. Unfortunately for him, the comment gave away too much.

"So you have a bomb for your item, huh?" Harold whispered to himself, a smirk of his own forming. "I can work with that."

Keeping a close eye on Scott's arm, Harold positioned himself behind the former villain. His finger was mere centimeters away from the green shell button, with Dakota and Scott none the wiser as they inched closer and closer to the end. "Almost... almoooooost... now!"

Seeing Scott's arm move towards his screen, Harold acted quick. With his shot lined up perfectly, he sent the green shell careening forward. Scott deployed the bomb, but in what felt like a mere second later, the shell connected with the bomb. With the bomb just barely behind both him and his teammate, the ensuing explosion knocked Scott and Dakota both away. They crashed roughly into one of the vermilion gates, dumping them from their karts and allowing Harold to pass them.

"Booyah! Thanks for the assist with the bomb," he called out, zooming past his opponents while Team Old School cheered from up ahead. While Scott was still dazed and groaning from the impact, Dakota growled in frustration.

"Uggggh, Scott! Why did you have to taunt and let him know you had a bomb?" She chastised her teammate, pushing him away.

"What, you're blaming me for that? How was I supposed to know he could hit the bomb with his own item?" The farmer folded his arms, huffing. "It was a freak accident!"

"Sam would have known better, he's played this game hundreds of times," Dakota shot back, her voice growing louder and angrier.

"Well sorry that I'm not your dang boyfriend." Scott turned his back to his teammate, not noticing as her shadow began to grow drastically. "Seriously, you can't expect everyone to have the same amount of dumb video game knowledge as him. Especially when we're doing it in real life! Like come on, cut me a bre-"

"SHUT. UP." Suddenly, a large orange hand squeezed around Scott and picked him up. He had no time to react as the breath was crushed out of him. Darting his eyes up, he confirmed that he was in the clutch of Dakotazoid now, who looked ahead at the finish like with venom in her eyes. "WE NOT LOSING!"

In a flash, Dakotazoid took off in a full sprint, knocking over many of the red gates as she went. This initially went unnoticed by the others as Jasmine and Shawn had just crossed the finish line and secured their team's victory with their sticker placement.

"And Team Explosive wins... again," Chris announced, ignoring the mix of cheers and groans from the others. "And it looks like Leshawna is up next! Things aren't looking too good for Team Rad... wait, what's causing all that mayhem back there?"

Everyone looked at where the host was pointing, seeing the image of the hulking mutant barreling her way up the mountain at record speeds. Some gasped, while others watched in awe. Leshawna was particularly confused when she crossed the finish line and no one seemed to notice. It was only after she had placed her sticker that she too had seen the cause of their distraction.

"Oh shoot... Harold, watch out!"

Her yell unfortunately went unheard by the geek as the noise of his go kart and the odd rumbling behind him drowned it out. "Finish line is so close I can almost taste it." The rumble became louder and louder, shaking the ground around him. "What the heck is going on back there? They should be out of items."

Harold tried to look back but it was too late, Dakotazoid's massive foot came stomping down on top of him as she had effectively caught up. She didn't even seem to notice that she had stepped on the nerd as she continued sprinting for the finish line. Chris and the others had preemptively dove out of the way to avoid being in Dakotazoid's path. She screeched to a halt across the finish line, finally letting go of Scott. His limbs were mangled in awkward positions, but as luck would have it the arm holding his last sticker was the one facing his team's sign and it barely stuck to the square as his limb body plopped to the ground. Dakota then tried to place her own sticker, though the force from her mutant strength caused the sign to snap in two in the process.

"Yes! We win!" Dakotazoid hopped up and down, fist raised in the air victoriously. Scott could only groan painfully, his body briefly lifting up every time his teammate came back down from her massive jumps.

"Well that was an... abnormal way to finish the race," a dumbfounded Chris finally continued. "But, you can't argue with results! Team Radioactive is safe, Team Old School is sending someone home."

"What? Those two didn't even cross in their go karts," Courtney pointed out, irate. "How is that fair?"

"I never said you HAD to finish in your karts, it just made things a lot easier for you kids." Chris chuckled. "Do you have any idea how long the challenge would have been if you had to walk the whole way? Booooring."

"Oh give me a break, you can take your stupid loopholes and shove them straight up your-"

"Excuse me, but I believe this can wait," Dawn interrupted, suddenly appearing between the arguing host and latina. "I believe the condition of your teammate is the more pressing matter at hand."

Dawn motioned past the other side of the finish line, where Dakota had accidentally stomped on Harold. The mighty step had obliterated the go kart, with bits and pieces of it strewn about the small crater-like hole her foot had left. In the middle of the wreckage was Harold, groaning in agony with his face buried in the dirt and his body bruised up.

"Harold!" Leshawna ran towards her former flame, the rest of their team following close behind. Other contestants looked on in shock, with the most wide eyed being a now reverted Dakota.

"Ugh, my legs! My neck! I think I broke my coccyx! Oh man, it hurts so much."

With each pained sentence from the nerd, more and more eyes of fear turned towards Dakota. All those standing near her gradually scooted away, with the heiress herself having her hand to her mouth as the feeling of dread filled her. The only one who didn't move away was Scott, merely because he currently wasn't in a state to do so.

 ***** Confessional: Dakota *****

"Crap, crap, crap, CRAP. I was afraid something like this would happen with Dakotazoid." Her face was buried in her hands, and she shook her head in disbelief. "M-maybe it wasn't as bad as it sounded?"

 ***** Confessional: Harold *****

The dweeb was now in a wheelchair, casts around his legs and a brace surrounding his neck. His left eye was bruised to the point of nearly being closed and an ice pack was being applied to the precious coccyx. "... well this sucks."

 ***** Confessional: Scott *****

"All I got to say?" the dirt farmer started, lifting up his shirt to show the bruises left on his torso by Dakota's vice-like grip. "Sam, you got WEIRD taste in girls."

 ***** At the elimination ceremony *****

While there may had still been debates sent Chris' way on the legitimacy of Team Radioactive's safety, at the end of the day it was Team Old School who found themselves at the ceremony. As he was unable to sit in the bleachers, the wheelchair bound Harold merely sat next to them.

"Man, Team Old School, tough break," Chris began in a fake tone of sincerity. "You started out the race so well! Almost even beat Team Explosive to first class. But now here you are, the first team to send a second person home. Twice in a row, no less!"

"I'll have you know I'll be looking into the legitimacy of allowing someone with Dakota's condition to be on one team but not the others," Courtney threatened sternly. "It creates an unfair competitive environment!"

"Yeah, good luck with that." Merely shooting a finger pistol and smirk her way in response, Chris then presented the plate holding six barf bags. "Anyway, may as well get this moving along. Cody, Beth, Leshawna, Trent, and DJ are all safe, since they didn't really do anything to warrant being on the block."

Everyone caught their respective barf bags, no one really celebrating due to the awkwardness of the ceremony. They merely nodded in acknowledgement and looked towards the remaining two without one.

"Harold, you're on the chopping block because you're kinda useless to your team now." He looked down at his wheelchair, sighing in frustration. "And Courtney, you're on the block because you're still kinda a Meanie McBossypants."

"Real mature," she grumbled in contempt.

"But only one of you Killer Bass alumni get to stick around, and that person will be...

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

... yeah, no use dragging it out too much. It's Courtney."

Chris tossed the final barf bag to the CIT, but to her credit she practiced restraint and didn't celebrate the safety to rub it in. She merely sighed in relief and caught her bag with no comment.

"GOSH! This is even more unfair than how I went out in World Tour," Harold complained, Chef approaching from behind to strap the parachute to him. Once it was on safely he wheeled the ginger over to the open hatch.

"To be fair, you kinda quit that one on your own there, hombre." Noting the annoyed glares sent his way, Chris put his arms up innocently. "But hey, feel free to say your goodbyes and whatnot."

The rest of Team Old School got up to see Harold off, DJ and Beth being the first to give him a hug.

"Sorry things ended up like this for you, Harold," Courtney said, going for a handshake instead. "Even I'll admit you didn't deserve to go out like this."

"I guess that means a lot coming from you, all things considered." He returned the handshake, smiling. "Thanks."

The outsiders of the team stepped aside to allow Trent and Cody to approach their bandmate next. Neither were particularly affectionate, but both were clearly upset over seeing their friend leave. "Man, this really bites," Trent commented. "I really thought the three of us would go far together this season."

"Take it from me, I know how it feels to get screwed over in an elimination like this," Cody added, patting him on the shoulder. "So I know how frustrating it's gotta be. Still, at least you can help Justin with his album when you get back."

"Pfft, you know he never takes my advice." The three shared a laugh, with Harold looking towards the exit to the rest of the plane. "By the way, I let Beardo know about our offer to have him on board earlier. So if you see him around let him know the offer is still there and junk."

"Can do, bud. Take care." Trent gave his friend a playful punch on the shoulder, he and Cody stepping aside to let the final team member talk to him.

"Tch, Harold baby, you gotta stop getting yourself into these messes," Leshawna chided playfully, both chuckling. "And here I was actually looking forward to spending more time with your scrawny behind this season."

"As much as it stinks to disappoint you, I guess I can take solace in knowing I've left you wanting more," he replied coolly, actually managing to get a blush for his troubles. "But yeah, this is probably the biggest thing that sucks about going so early."

"Whadda ya mean?"

Harold looked towards Cody and Trent, who both flashed thumbs up and motioned for him to continue. "Welp, I may as well get this out there before I go. This was gonna be the season where I tried to make things work between us. You're an awesome friend, but I think you'd be an even awesome-er girlfriend."

"Is that right?" she asked, raising an eyebrow with a hand on her hip and a smirk forming.

"We've beaten around this bush for years now," Harold continued. "And I know we're a lot different. Weird guys like me don't usually date radical girls like you, but I've toured all around the world with my band and I can say with certainty that you're the only one that totally rocks my world."

Leshawna was impressed, her blush deepening. "Shoot, Harold, when did you become such a sweet talker?"

 ***** Confessional: Cody *****

"He practiced. A lot. Pretty much every Tuesday and Friday on the tour bus he'd go over it again. Plus Trent gave him some advice. Justin too, but his pointers were a bit too focused on Justin himself and that didn't really make sense."

 ***** On the Jumbo Jet *****

"So yeah, I know things ended pretty shortly when we tried this back in season 1, but how about we give this thing a shot for real this time?"

"Shoo. This is a lot to take in all at once, Harold." Leshawna fanned herself, the watchful gazes of the rest of her team not helping calm down the situation. "I don't know what to say."

"Then how about instead of saying anything," Harold replied without missing a beat, "You give daddy some sugar."

Harold leaned forward, eyes closed and lips prepared. Leshawna followed suite, also leaning towards her rekindled flame. It was as the two were mere inches away from a kiss that the click of a button was heard. His eyes shot open and he gasped, quickly pushing her to the ground. "Look out!"

Only just barely pushing Leshawna out of the way in time, she had narrowly avoided the Boot of Shame that swung down and hit Harold square in the face. The impact sent him rolling out of the hatch, plummeting to the ground below.

"Chris, what the heck man?" Trent yelled, everyone on the team wide eyed at the moment being interrupted.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Leshawna added once she had regained realization of the situation, looking ready to give Chris the beatdown of a lifetime. "I was gonna tell him yes!"

"Yeah, and it was all sooooo romantic," the host taunted in a sickeningly sweet voice. "I was like, so swept up in that moment, oh my gosh you guys... buuuuuut now I'm over it!"

Returning to his trademark cocky grin and cool demeanor, Chris patted Leshawna on the shoulder. "But hey, at least he pushed you out of the way so you didn't get the boot with him. A real gentlemen that guy, he's a keeper. Now get to scooting, I got an outro to do."

Everyone, Leshawna especially, still seemed flustered at the whole situation, but they knew there was nothing that could be done. They reluctantly made their way to economy class, leaving Chris and Chef by themselves in the elimination area.

"That WAS pretty wack just blue balling the situation like that," Chef pointed out, though grinning mischievously.

"I know, I have the best timing ever!" Turning to the camera, the host held up the trusty button that allowed the boot to do its thing. "Will I get to ruin any more moments with the Boot? How will Leshawna recover now that her newly found old boyfriend is gone as soon as they were back on? And seriously, can ANYONE stop Team Explosive from steamrolling the competition? Find out the answers to all of this and more, next time on TOTAL... DRAMA... BATTLE OF THE GENERATIONS!"

 **Voting Confessionals:**

Beth awkwardly stamped Harold's passport, frowning. "This kinda feels wrong, but it wouldn't be fair to anyone else if we kept an injured teammate over them anyway. Sorry, Harold."

"It would be pretty hypocritical of me to vote someone off due to injury considering season 1 for me," Cody pointed out, stamping Courtney's passport. "So I won't do that... but yeah, he's pretty much screwed.

"Is it messed up that I'm kinda relieved this happened?" Courtney looked down at Harold's passport awkwardly before giving it a stamp. "I mean, I'm not happy that it happened like this. Even if it was to him, I don't feel like I really won anything this way. Just got stupidly lucky. But I'd probably be going next if the Drama Brothers weren't separated, so I guess this worked out in the end."

"Man, this is all kinds of messed up," DJ noted as he stamped Harold's passport reluctantly. "I mean, I know me and Beth agreed to try and help Courtney even the odds between us and the others, but it feels cheap doing it like this. Oh well, guess that's life."

Harold grunted as he stamped Courtney's passport, rubbing the back of his neck brace after the fact. "Though I may not have steel claws, I do like to think I have a pretty wicked good healing factor. So hopefully my team lets me stick around and walk this one off. Sure I may have jammed up legs, a messed up neck, and also my coccyx. But that's not enough reason to get voted off... right?"

Leshawna looked on at the Harold passport, almost considering voting for it but ultimately deciding on the Courtney one. "Sorry, I know it ain't fair to Courtney since Harold is injured and it makes more sense to vote him off. But I don't got it in me to vote for the string bean. Shoot, am I falling for his weird behind again? Well at least he isn't springing some crazy confession on me for now. That would be pretty awkward in front of everyone."

After looking back and forth between the passports for Harold and Courtney, Trent eventually sighed and stamped the one belonging to his bandmate. "I'm sorry, Harold, but it's only going to injure you worse if you stick around for more challenges in this state. Really sucks too, because I know he was gonna ask out Leshawna again soon. Maybe he'll luck out and everyone else will vote out Courtney instead?"

Votes for Harold: 4 (Beth, Courtney, DJ, Trent)

Votes for Courtney: 3 (Cody, Harold, Leshawna)

 **After the Boot of Shame:**

Harold struggled a bit to deploy the parachute, grunting in pain when he finally got it to go as it agitated his neck. While rubbing it, he looked on at the camera with a wince. "You know, when guys like me say we want monster girls to step on us, I don't think we really take into consideration just how much it'd ACTUALLY hurt. Gosh."

He sighed, leaning back in his wheelchair while the parachute floated him down. "I guess things could have gone worse. I was totally about to score me some sugar before Chris had to go and do a guy dirty like that. What's that guy's problem? Duncan and Gwen kiss and it's good for ratings, but I can't even have mine? Talk about picking favorites."

"Anyway, I'm starting to think me and Japan together is cursed. First Al tricks me into quitting last time, and this time I get taken out by injury due to a kaiju? I can't catch a break here. I guess all I can do is go heal up, maybe hang with Justin, and hope Leshawna is still up for giving things a shot when the season is over. Or if she gets eliminated. Whatever comes first."

With that all said, he finally harmlessly came to a stop on a random Kyoto sidewalk. He removed the parachute with ease, looking around in shock. "Huh, a normal landing with nothing gross or injury inducing waiting for me? Maybe my luck is turning around already!"

Perhaps instantly regretting his jinxing words, he was caught off guard by an ear shattering chorus of screeches. He looked nearby to see the group of Japanese fan girls, now tripled in size. "It's one of the Drama Brothers! Get him!"

"And I spoke too soon. GOSH!" With all his might, Harold furiously wheeled away from the mob, looking on at the camera desperately. "Leshawna, if you're watching I know this may look bad, but call me-" He was unable to finish his sentence as he had to scream and increase his speed to get away from the rabid fan girls now chasing after him.

 **Remaining Contestants:**

Team Old School: Beth, Cody, Courtney, DJ, Leshawna, Trent

Team Radioactive: Anne Maria, B, Brick, Dakota, Dawn, Lightning, Scott

Team Explosive: Amy, Beardo, Dave, Jasmine, Rodney, Sammy, Shawn, Sugar

 **Elimination Order:**

22nd: Harold

23rd: Izzy

24th: Staci

 **Author's Note:**

 _I'm sure many of you are shocked. Blindsided even. So yes, we'll start things by addressing the obvious elephant in the room._

 _Yes... I know it was said I'd be prioritizing new locations but here I am doing a Japan chapter only three locations in. It may seem contradictory, but I'll remind you that I actually said I was prioritizing specifically new locations. Revisiting countries themselves is fine as long as they have a new place to visit. So for example, next chapter will take place in the United States, but you can be assured it won't be Hawaii, New York, Area 51, or Las Vegas. Originally this chapter actually took place in Tokyo, the Japan challenge in World Tour never specified where in the country they were as it took place entirely in the game show studio. But upon consulting the wiki, apparently official word says the challenge WAS in Tokyo despite it never being specified in the episode. So to keep up with my own rules, the locale was changed to Kyoto. Japan was one of those countries I had to revisit, there's no way a weeb like me couldn't do it. Especially since the World Tour episode kinda did Japan dirty by showing no landmarks and having many jokes about them mixing up Japanese and Chinese culture. So you know I had to do it to em._

 _... oh yeah, I should probably also talk about the whole eliminating my favorite character thing. Yeah, Harold is out. I love the guy, he is quite literally my favorite Total Drama character. Nothing irks me more reading a fan fic than when I catch someone not putting some RESPEC on my man's name. So what gives? Well, the reasoning for eliminating Harold early may seem dumb since it doesn't really have to do anything with this story specifically, but more my past. I've written two main comp fics before and Harold makes it to the final four in both of them. My bias towards the character definitely played a role in that. So needless to say I've given the guy plenty of exposure, hell Underdogs is by a wide margin the most popular story in the fandom with Harold marked as one of the main characters. It was just a matter of, "Harold, I love ya man, but I gotta put the bias aside and give myself a chance to write other characters." Looking at it objectively, Harold could have stuck around. He had his friendships with Cody and Trent, the storyline to finish with Leshawna and potentially other friendships to form like the one teased with Beardo. But they were brought up this chapter as a sort of red herring because it's time for me to bench Harold earlier. I suppose I should note this originally wasn't his placement, he was always going out pre-merge but he originally made it a bit farther, but I ended up swapping his placement with someone else. I'll acknowledge who when we get to that elimination. So yeah, sorry for people who wanted more of him, obviously I can sympathize since he's my favorite character, but this was a personal decision of wanting to spread the love to other characters. He will at least be a vocal and active part of the aftermaths like he was in World Tour._

 _So a few more notes before we go. This chapter's song, "A Cruel Host's Thesis," was a parody of the infamous Evangelion opening theme. Considering the location this chapter was always going to have an anime theme parody for the song. I did consider doing more recent big name intro themes like the first themes for JoJo's Bizarre Adventure or My Hero Academia. I also considered doing a parody of a well known dub theme like the 4kids Pokemon or One Piece openings for the memes. But ultimately it felt the most fitting to use Eva. It's pretty much the definitive anime opening, and is always the one people use when they make joke anime themes for things like Cory in the House, plus it's been referenced in things like Regular Show. I actually Total Drama-ified the entire opening with the song, so by all means feel free to go back to the song with Eva's opening in another tab to compare how I handled that clusterfuck. It was really fun to write and imagining it in my head amused me. Not all songs will parody the actual source video, the Let it Go parody obviously didn't, but sometimes I'll also parody the visuals like I did here._

 _I don't have much else to talk about. I'll leave the poll up for one more chapter asking people what their early favorite team is. Team Old School is still winning, which is amusing since they're now currently the smallest team. I also was originally going to update my story Total Drama Level Up before this but as I got a quarter of the way done with the chapter I just lost all drive to do it and ultimately came back here to get the creative juices flowing. Hopefully I can finish that chapter now. So for now, feel free to leave more reactions and predictions. Did Harold's elimination surprise you? Who else could be a shock elimination in the pre-merge? Where in America could we be going in the next chapter? Leave me those reviews! Like seriously, please, help a guy out. Those reviews fuel my life force._


	5. A Hoedown Hootenanny

"Previously on Total Drama Battle of the Generations," Chris narrated from within the cockpit with Chef. "We touched down in Kyoto for a go kart race unlike any other! There were explosions, bananas, and a whole lot of chaos. Our teams kept vying back and forth for the lead, but in the end it was once again Team Explosive to race into first place. Meanwhile, Team Old School found themselves in the elimination ceremony once again after Dakotazoid stepped on Harold's parade. To add insult to injury, literally, the now wheelchair bound nerd was voted off. But not before rekindling things with his former flame Leshawna, giving your's truly the perfect opportunity to ruin their moment."

Chris laughed as the clip played of Harold being kicked off the plane right as he and Leshawna were going to kiss. "Man, I love this job! Where will the contestants find themselves next? Can Dakota keep her anger in check? And who will be the next one voted out? Find out tonight, right here on TOTAL... DRAMA... BATTLE OF THE GENERATIONS!"

 ***** Opening Credits *****

With Scott, Dawn, B, and Brick off to the cargo hold for their usual zombie search with Team Explosive, only Dakota, Lightning, and Anne Maria remained in economy class. The girls sat in an awkward silence while Lightning did push ups on the nearby floor.

"Yo, can one of you keep count for The Lightning while he's doing his thing?" he asked, not slowing down from the workout. "Gotta have my mind in the game, so Lightning ain't got no sha-time for algebra."

"Yeah yeah, you're at like fifty or something, just keep going." Anne Maria didn't look up from her nails, mostly channeling out the occasional grunts and commentary from the jock. But a sigh from Dakota caught her attention. "Hey, you doing alright?"

"No." The heiress slumped back into her seat, looking on in shame. "I feel horrible about what happened with Dakotazoid. Even if it was an enemy team member, the fact that I actually got someone injured is eating me up inside."

"Ah. Yeah, I can see why that'd be bugging ya." Putting away the nail file, now it was time for the Jersey girl to switch to eyeliner as she went about her touch up routine. "Well hey, look on the bright side. It helped get us the win! Plus, maybe that ginger guy didn't get it too bad. Might not even have got eliminated."

On cue, Team Old School finally began filing their way into economy class. There was an awkward silence, with Dakota and Anne Maria both observing that Harold was now the only one missing from the group. As they sat down, Leshawna in particular was giving the mutant a death stare that felt like it could melt through steel.

"Er... nevermind." Anne Maria chuckled awkwardly, frowning when Dakota could only sigh in shame.

 ***** Confessional: Dakota *****

"Uuuugh, I can't believe this! I came back to the show to try and make new friends, it got pretty hard doing that when you're stuck as a giant monster at all times. But after this everyone's just going to be intimidated around me, and I'm PRETTY sure Leshawna hates my guts now. Maybe I can try and patch things up with her?"

 ***** In Economy Class *****

Unable to further stew in the awkward environment, Dakota sucked in a breath and walked over to Team Old School's bench. Anne Maria wanted to warn of it being a bad idea, but was too slow to stop her. Leshawna's glare stayed firmly pointed directly into the blonde's eyes as she approached with an optimistic smile.

"Hey, uh, Leshawna. I just wanted to apologize about everything that happened." She looked around at the other Old School team members who were watching the interaction curiously. "To all of you. I know it's a competition, but I didn't mean to injure your friend like that. So I'm really really sorry."

"Uh huh," was all Leshawna would reply with.

"And since we got off on the wrong foot, I was hoping we might be able to start over," Dakota continued. "You and I are both fashionable gals, plus we seem to have a pretty similar taste in guys. I think we could be really good friends."

"Show me one person who asked, white girl." Not missing a beat when the heiress recoiled at her response, Leshawna kept it up. "Also for the record me and Harold ain't just friends now, but I won't get to enjoy that fact until after I'm done winning this damn show. So for the time being? Leave me alone."

Dakota tried to open her mouth for a response, but an intensified glare from the darker skinned girl was enough to convince her it was futile. She returned to her seat in shame, others in the room cringing at the awkwardness of the exchange.

 ***** Cockpit Confessional: Leshawna *****

Taking in a deep breath, Leshawna let out a heavy sigh and shook her head. "Look, I get it. Dakota didn't injure Harold on purpose. I don't know what it's like having her condition, I figure it must be hard to control stuff like that. So over time I'll cool off and drop my grudge. But for now, can't a sister be salty in peace?"

"It WAS pretty cold how you clapped back at her," Chef noted from the pilot seat, not noticing the offended reaction he got in response.

"She put my man in a damn wheelchair!"

"Ah, so maybe you're just jealous that another girl got to crush him underneath her. Nerds like that do tend to enjoy crazy monster chicks." Sensing danger, Chef turned around in a panic as he instantly regretted his word choice. An incensed Leshawna rolled up a sleeve, stomping towards the older man. "Now hold up, I was just joking!"

She pulled back her arm for a punch but the camera transitioned away before any sort of impact was seen.

 ***** In the Common Area *****

Sometime later everyone was beginning to enjoy their breakfast, or at least as much as they could manage. Courtney joined DJ and Beth at a table, the rest of their team still in the process of getting their food.

"Crazy how everything went down, ain't it?" DJ said quietly, going for a vegan friendly option with his breakfast. "I guess we should feel lucky, but I still kinda feel bad."

"Yes yes, what happened to Harold really sucked for him," Courtney agreed haphazardly. "But now that he's out the playing field is back to even for us. And if we can rope in Leshawna away from Trent and Cody? We'll have successfully turned the tables."

"I don't know, her and Trent have been pretty good friends since season 1 too," Beth pointed out. "It might be pretty hard to get her to vote against them."

"Well if we have to take out chances in a tiebreaker I suppose Cody would be the best bet for who we can beat if it comes to that."

As the CIT continued whispering her plans to her sorta kinda allies, a certain dirt farmer couldn't help but take notice of the conversation. He took a seat next to Courtney, startling the members of the enemy team.

"Ya doing some plotting over here, Court?" He asked slyly, grinning through the annoyed glare his former flame was giving him. "Ya know, I think I'm starting to get in good with some of my teammates, so if you wanna start an inter-team alliance I'd be pretty down to-"

"Not interested, Scott. Go away." Seeing him about to reply, Courtney jabbed a finger into his chest and raised her voice. "Go. Away!"

Scott held up his hands defensively, quickly grabbing his tray and retreating to his own team's table. Courtney's teammates could only watch in amused confusion at the interaction.

"So what's the deal with you two?" Beth asked. "Are you like on a break or-"

"We were never really ON at all," Courtney tried to correct. "Didn't you watch All Stars? It was all an act. I didn't really have feelings for that gross farm boy, it was purely strategic to earn his loyalty."

"See you say that, but you were even talking about how you liked Scott when he wasn't around," DJ pointed out, he and Beth forming grins of their own as she grew more flustered. "Even in the confessional where literally no one else could hear you."

The Latina stammered a bit, going over excuses in her mind that would make enough sense. Eventually one stuck out. "Well, duh! What if he got voted off and got to watch the episodes at home? If they did another finale where the others voted on the winner, or if I needed helpers for the last challenge, I would still need to ensure his cooperation."

DJ folded his arms. "Mhm, sure."

 ***** Confessional: DJ *****

"If that was the case, she never woulda made that confessional about her chart that shot herself in the foot. That thing lost her Scott AND Gwen's support. She ain't fooling nobody, she's still into that dude. Wonder why she keeps denying it so much?"

 ***** In the Common Area *****

Just as breakfast was finishing up, Chris strolled in with a certain mischievous smirk that could only mean a challenge was imminent. "Well if it isn't my favorite people to terrorize. If any of you are sufficiently homesick at this point after visiting three different continents, you're in luck! We're heading back to the Americas. Specifically, today we're heading down south."

"Oh cool, something in South America?" Brick smiled enthusiastically. "Where to? Brazil, maybe Chile?"

"No, we're keeping it to North America for now," the host corrected. "We're just heading south."

"So, Mexico?" Shawn asked, scratching his head.

Chris facepalmed. "Perhaps I should be more clear going forward. We're going to the United States. Specifically the south as a backdrop for today's challenge." He retrieved a pair of legally distinct mouse ears from out of his pocket to place on his head. "We're heading over to the happiest town on Earth. Or so they say, at least. Orlando! Nestled in Florida, it's home to countless tourist destinations that'll make an excellent playground for today-"

"Uh, Chris?" Chef whispered, running up to his companion in the middle of his briefing. He was currently sporting a black eye courtesy of Leshawna. "We... don't have enough fuel to get to Orlando."

"Seriously? Didn't we JUST have this problem?" Chef could only shrug and smile innocently. "Fine, whatever. Plan B!"

Throwing away the mouse ears, Chris reached back into his pocket to pull out a purple and yellow bead necklace. He slipped it on and resumed his speech. "So, change of plans. We'll actually be heading to New Orleans! Not only does Louisiana specialize in gators and gumbo, it knows how to throw a wicked sweet party! So today-"

"We don't have the gas to make it to New Orleans either," Chef hesitantly interrupted once again.

Chris could only sigh, tossing away the beads and putting on a sheriff hat that resembled the one worn by the main character from that one zombie show. "Okay, Plan C! Atlanta is known by many as the birthplace of the world's most famous soda, but for today's challenge-"

This time without saying anything, Chef meekly leaned forward. Sighing, Chris gave his cohort a side eye. "Not enough gas for Atlanta either, eh?" Chef shook his head. "Please tell me we at least have enough gas for Plan D."

After looking off to the side, Chef nodded and gave a thumbs up.

"Alright, Plan D it is. At least I have a good outfit for that one." Chris and Chef both walked off, leaving the contestants confused since they had just watched the back and forth awkwardly the whole time. "And get me the intern in charge of keeping up with the fuel! Him and the Boot of Shame are about to have a nice long talk."

Once they were gone and the cafeteria was left in silence, everyone else could only look around in further confusion. "Soooo, is he gonna tell us where we're going or what?" Trent asked, receiving no answer.

The camera view switched to outside the jet as it began to make its descent. It passed by a weird looking skyscraper that resembled Batman's cowl, a building housing a giant musical stage, and a street full of BBQ joints playing live music among other locals. It eventually landed in the middle of a park with everyone being herded outside. When Chris joined them, he was clad in an Elvis Presley getup complete with a wig and rhinestone covered white jumpsuit.

"Somehow that outfit suits you," Cody said among the chorus of chuckles.

"Thank ya," Chris replied with a bad Elvis impersonation, gyrating his hips and striking a pose for added effect. "Thank ya very much."

That done, he cleared his throat and returned to his normal speaking voice. "Welcome to Centennial Park, right here in Nashville. Capital of Tennessee, and known for its copious amount of barbecue joints as well as having a rich history with the music industry. Granted a lot of that history is with country music, but hey, they can't all be winners."

"If we're in Tennessee, then how come there's the Italiano thingy over there?" Sugar asked, pointing a finger at a nearby building. It was a recreation of the Parthenon, exactly like the one in Athens. "I don't think that doohickey is supposed to be American."

"It's just a recreation, Sugar. I have no idea why they felt the need to recreate the Parthenon in the middle of Tennessee, but at least it'll make a neat backdrop for today's challenge. And on that note, let's explain the rules! We're going to be putting on a genuine southern county fair."

Chef, now clad in overalls and a cowboy hat, rolled out a chalkboard that had been divided into three columns. At the top of each column was one of the team logo's. Sugar cheered at the announcement of the challenge theme, while Scott, Rodney, and Beth also looked varying degrees of stoked.

"To put on this fair, we'll be having you all compete in various mini challenges. For each one, you'll nominate one person to represent your team. If you win a challenge, you earn your team three points. Being the runner up gets you 2 points, while losing obviously only gets you a single point." As he explained things, Chris noticed Sugar absolutely giddy with excitement. "And since I'm sure some of you are a bit more eager than others for the competition, we have a few extra rules. Most importantly, every member of the team must compete in a challenge. Only after everyone has gone can a teammate go again. As you can probably assume, the team with the most points at the end wins first class. The team with the lowest amount of points sends some sorry jerk off the plane."

"What if there's a tie?" Beth asked with her hand raised.

"A tiebreaker has been set aside if it's needed," Chris confirmed. "So that about covers it, feel free to talk strategy while we prepare the first challenge."

Both Chef and Chris left to ensure things were ready. Murmurs broke out among the respective teams, though the whispers between Team Old School were the most serious.

"Alright, we're down two people so we really need to pull this thing off," Trent said to the others, receiving various nods in agreement. "Even if we just get 2nd, as long as we make sure we don't have to send someone home for the third time in a row."

"Having the smallest team may actually work to our advantage," Courtney added. "We'll be able to double up on challenges the quickest, so we'll be able to more strategically plan out who should do what."

Meanwhile with Team Explosive, it was clear one particular teammate was more excited than anyone else.

"I've been to more county fairs in a year then any of y'all have been in yer lives combined." Sugar pointed her thumb at her chest. "I should go first. Strike some fear into the rest of them losers by showing them how outta their league they are."

"If you're the most experienced with these things we can't just pick you right off the bat when we may need you for something else," Shawn pointed out. "We need to use you for a challenge we know you'll win for sure, and that probably won't be the first one."

"Alright, the first challenge is going to be a blueberry pie eating contest," Chris announced through a megaphone. "Send up your reps and let's chow down!"

Everyone looked on, befuddled, with Sugar's smug grin being the only exception. Shawn shrugged. "I stand corrected, go get em Sugar."

A long table had been placed atop a platform, with a chair on each end and in the middle. In front of each chair was a ludicrous pile of pies, probably at least 30 for each person. Sugar had begun drooling in anticipation, while she was joined on stage by Leshawna and Brick. The former cracked her knuckles at the challenge ahead, while the later limbered up a bit.

"Whoever eats the most amount of pies after 60 seconds takes the win." Chris held up a stopwatch, peering over the three contenders before starting the clock. "Begin!"

Mere moments after Chris' sentence finished, it was already over before it had begun. Moving with an abnormal speed she wasn't usually known for, an inhuman noise came from Sugar as she shoveled pies into her gullet as if they were nothing. Brick had barely taken a bite from his first pie as he watched on in horror, both tantalized and repulsed by the pageant queen's display. Somehow she began making the noise of a vacuum cleaner, inhaling pies as if it was simple as breathing air itself.

 ***** Confessional: Brick *****

"Ya know, I couldn't really explain it in words, but there's something about Sugar that absolutely terrifies me. I feel like she'd be able to eat another human with ease so long as they're covered in BBQ sauce. Needless to say, it is NOT comforting seeing her on enemy lines in the battlefield."

 ***** In Centennial Park *****

Sugar was almost entirely done with her pie pile by the time Brick had finally snapped out of it and finished his first. Leshawna was past 4 pies, but neither of them could hope to keep up with an absolute unit like Sugar. Soon enough she had consumed all of the pastries in front of her, with 20 seconds still on the clock to spare.

"That's it?" She asked, annoyed. "Y'all ain't got no more for me?"

Chris and Chef exchanged looks of unnerved confusion. "You say that like we actually expected any of you to be able to finish the whole pile. Seriously, there's something actually wrong with-"

"Well I ain't done yet, I can eat more!" Not waiting for permission due to her Lovecraftian hunger not yet being quenched, Sugar bowled over Brick and proceeded to devour the rest of his pies. A fearful looking Leshawna was able to dive out of the way just in time to avoid also being pushed aside when Sugar continued to inhale her pies as well. Other contestants could merely watch in awe as Sugar made the entire spread of deserts disappear.

After giving a satisfied burp at a job well done, Sugar finally sat down in time for the stopwatch to reach zero.

"Despite the fact that she wasn't supposed to eat the pies from anyone else, I guess the results were pretty locked in even if she didn't speed up the process." Chris turned to the chalkboard, drawing three lines under Team Explosive's column. Two lines were drawn under Team Old School's, and only a single line under Team Radioactive. "Sugar won with ease, while Brick did the worst. Leshawna was in the middle of the pack. I'll remind the teams those three can't compete in the next challenges until their whole team has gone. Up next? Pig racing!"

"Aw come on, I love piggies!" Sugar huffed as she jumped down from the stage, arms folded in disappointment. "Stupid rules."

"Beardo, think you could make pig noises to get your's to cooperate?" Jasmine asked, raising an eyebrow at the beatboxer. "Other than Sugar I don't think any of the rest of us would particularly excel at that one."

"Fo sho." He gave a thumbs up, doing a convincing pig squeal to prove his capability.

Meanwhile with the Radioactive crew, things were proceeding less cooperatively.

"What do you mean ya can't do it?" Anne Maria asked a defiant looking Dawn. "It's animals! Isn't vibing with them your whole shtick?"

"Making them race against their will for our own enjoyment is most certainly NOT part of my _shtick."_ She used air quotes on the last word for emphasis. "Quite honestly, I find the idea of this challenge absolutely demeaning to those poor pigs."

"Pfft, if creepy girl don't wanna do it then Lightning's got this," the first person speaking jock said, stepping up to the scene.

"And what do you know about pigs?" Scott asked.

"Nothin. But Lightning knows all about racing, and he knows all about winning. You ask Lightning, that's a good combo right there!"

No one really had any better ideas on who should go if Dawn was refusing, so Lightning was sent ahead. The second challenge took place at a makeshift muddy race track that was contained within a pen. Hurdles of various heights were spread throughout between the starting point and finish line, and the track seemed to get muddier as it progressed. Three large pigs awaited at the starting point, one of which was caught off guard when Beth ran up to pet it like a dog.

"Awww, they're so adorable!" She scratched behind her pig's ear, making it roll over for a belly rub. "You remind me so much of Big Bertha!"

While Beth continued showering her pig with affection, Lightning and Beardo took their positions behind their's. The pig was decently large, but the beatboxer couldn't help but look at it nervously when comparing himself to the more lean Lightning and smaller Beth.

"This... might not have been the best idea."

An airhorn was blown, prompting everyone to jump on to their pigs. While Lightning and Beth took off with little issue, Beardo's worries were proven to be valid as his pig struggled to carry his weight. It was progressing at a significantly slower rate than the others, even as its rider began making pig noises in an attempt to communicate and make it stop lagging behind.

Things stayed close between Lightning and Beth, but the later's pig began inching ahead since it had less weight to carry. The farm girl continued to pet her mount's head and whisper words of encouragement to keep its spirits up. But Lightning? He had a different plan.

"Shoot, I ain't about to lose a race to some nerdy girl." Out of nowhere, Lightning whipped out his container of protein powder. Holding on with just his legs, he was able to scoop out some powder and hold it in front of the pig's face. "We need to get this show on the road, piggy. Take some of this, it's how Lightning stays winning!"

Curious, the pig licked up the powder from the scoop, still clearing hurdles as it did. Its eyes went wide, instantly feeling invigorated with energy since that was totally how protein powder worked. "Oh you like that? Get Lightning the win and there's more where that came from!"

Nodding in understanding, the pig increased speed, closing the gap that Beth's had made. But now even Beardo was catching up, hanging from his pig's tail and covered in mud as it wildly ran towards the finish line.

 ***** Confessional: Beardo *****

"I got no idea what happened! One moment I'm just trying all these pig noises to get the thing moving, then the next moment it freaks out, bucks me off into the mud, and takes off like a madman. I think I might have accidentally said something that scared it? Wouldn't know, I don't speak pig."

 ***** In Centennial Park *****

Between the efforts of all three contestants, the race was becoming neck and neck. For Beardo's pig in particular, the beatboxer had to brace himself as he banged into each hurdle it jumped over. But at the end, edging out by just a snout, Lightning's pig crossed first just before Beth's.

"Sha-score!" Lightning vaulted off his mount, soaking in the cheers from his teammates. He scooped the pig a fresh batch of protein powder, which hopefully wasn't unhealthy for it to eat. "That's what Lightning's talking about! Eat up, piggy bro."

"It's ok little guy, you did your best," Beth reassured her own pig, petting it gently. As for Beardo, he could only groan as his pig dragged him across the finish line, with Shawn and Jasmine coming over to check on him.

"And with that, we have a tied score at four points each," Chris announced, Chef updating the marked below the icons to reflect as much. "And since we're on a roll with animals right now, our next challenge will be chicken herding!"

Many of Dawn's teammates looked at the aura reader expectantly. She sighed, nodding in acceptance. "I suppose if all I'm doing is leading them into the right direction and not having to ride them like with the pig, I have no problems doing that one."

Over with the Team Old School, the most animal inclined teammate was also receiving looks from everyone. Though many of these were ones of concern.

"You sure you wanna do this, DJ?" Leshawna asked skeptically. "No offense, but after World Tour I'm surprised to see you actively wanting to interact with animals."

"I put all that curse garbage behind me, the stuff stopped after World Tour was over." DJ looked on confidently, chin held high. "So yeah, I got this. I'm probably our best bet to pull it off."

The three representatives were led into a large square pen where a heard of chickens awaited in the center. On the three opposite sides were doors that led to smaller pens, each with a team flag to signify where they needed to herd the chickens to. DJ and Dawn were joined, surprisingly, by Amy. Apparently she had volunteered herself for what she deemed an easier challenge as bossing things around was one of her fortes.

Once again the challenge was prompted by the blow of Chris' air horn, which itself startled the chickens and made them scatter. Amy immediately began rushing at a group of the fowls, yelling for them to get moving and having little success. Meanwhile DJ and Dawn opted for more gentle approaches.

"Good afternoon, lovely creatures," Dawn cooed, kneeling down to meet the birds face to face. "I'm sorry if that mean blonde girl is causing you all any distress. Come, I'll take you all away from her where it's safe."

As she started walking towards her teams safe zone with a line of chickens following her, she took notice of DJ crouching down and offering his hand at one of the chickens to show he meant no harm. "It's ok, little chick, I ain't gonna hurt ya. Wish I had some veggies to feed y'all."

A group of the chickens began nuzzling up towards DJ, some even hiding behind him for protection as the still yelling Amy ran by while she continued pursuing her group. Just as DJ turned to head towards his team's zone, he yelped upon seeing Dawn standing right in front of him.

"It's rare that I get to see someone else so in tune with mother nature's creatures. I had heard from some of the others that you and animals don't mix well, but from what I can tell they seem to be at ease around you."

DJ raised a confused eyebrow, taken off guard by her calm smile. "Oh, did ya not watch Wold Tour? Well, it's a long story but I was able to move past it. I've always loved animals, I guess. I make sure to take it extra gently around them ever since that season."

"It shows! Your affection for animals is perhaps the second most pronounced aspect in your aura, only behind your simultaneous love and fear of your own mother."

The brick house was taken even more off guard from that comment, recoiling while Dawn was none the wiser to how the situation had been made awkward. An impatient Chris watched on from the sidelines, annoyed that no chickens had successfully been corralled since at this point Amy was now being swarmed by the chickens.

"Yo dudes, you remember the whole challenge thing?" He called out. "Yeah, it's on a time limit you know. Move it!"

Dawn and DJ refocused, going their separate ways to lead their chickens towards their team's pens. By the time it was all said and done Dawn had corralled the most chickens by far, but DJ had placed at a respectable second. Amy had only managed to get a measly two chickens in her pen by the time the challenge ended, simply because she could carry one by the feet in each hand. She coughed up feathers, grunting in annoyance.

"Looks like Team Radioactive takes the lead, though Team Old School and their current 0 wins isn't far behind in points," Chris announced while the chalkboard was once again updated. "Let's keep this thing moving!"

A flash forward showed a quick version of the next challenge. Shawn, Trent, and Anne Maria found themselves inside a large spinning carnival ride, strapped to the wall as they spun around at increasingly crazy speeds. The challenge was simply to be the last one standing without throwing up. All three tried to hold strong, but it was ultimately the jersey girl that lost her lunch first. Trent and Shawn locked eyes, daring the other to go. But when Anne Maria's projectile vomit ended up spinning back around to nail the musician in the face, Trent lost his composure and gave Shawn the win. Of course, once Trent's puke found its way to Shawn, he no longer could hold back as well.

The next challenge was simply to churn butter. Courtney, Dakota, and Jasmine took their places behind an old timey wooden churner, hands at the ready on the wood sticks. Once the signal was given, they had a minute to churn as fast as possible. But while all three gave their best efforts, Jasmine was by far the fastest. She went to town on the churn at breakneck speeds, at one point even stopping to spit into her hand and increase velocity.

It was after she continued churning like there was no tomorrow when everyone began looking straight at Shawn. Even Scott, who had at first been fixated on Courtney's churning, eventually took note of the Aussie's speed and sent a stare Shawn's way. The zombie nut could only blush and chuckle awkwardly. Beardo at one point elbowed him, giving a thumbs up and click sound.

Needless to say Jasmine had won by the end of the challenge, with Courtney as the runner up and Dakota in last after she too had gotten distracted. Though the outback girl had no idea why everyone was staring at her when she returned to her team.

"Up next we have a carnival game," Chris announced while Chef updated the new tallies. Team Explosive was now in the lead, with Team Radioactive trailing behind. "And by process of elimination, Cody has to do this one for his team!"

The tech geek earned some words of encouragement from his team, while B was easily nominated to represent his own. Team Explosive had the widest variety of people to still choose from, but Sammy was ultimately the one to volunteer. Once they were all picked, the trio was brought to three carnival game stands complete with fluffy plush toys hanging from the walls as prizes. On the back walls were various balloons of differing sizes, and on the shelf in front of them were darts.

"Pop as many balloons as you can until you're out of darts," Chris explained. "Try not to hit any of us with the darts while you're at it, we don't want to lose another contestant due to injury. The smaller the balloon, the more points they're worth. You have two minutes to complete the challenge... begin!"

Immediately B took a close inspection of his dart. Looking it over carefully and fiddling with it in his hand, he pointed it down and tossed a dart repeatedly into the shelf to get a feel for the best way to throw it. After then licking his finger to get a measurement of the wind, he was confident in his calculations and began firing at the balloons. Every dart hit the mark, and he prioritized the balloons worth more points.

Cody and Sammy were also doing their best, but some of their shots failed to connect with a balloon. The geek was doing a bit better than the cheerleader, possibly due in part to the differences in spectator attitudes. Team Old School were cheering on Cody with words of encouragement and support. This was mostly the case for Sammy, but one voice in particular stood out among her team.

"Come on, Sparemmy, stop missing shots," Amy yelled, ignoring the glares she was getting from Shawn and Jasmine. "Are you really going to let those dorks beat you in a dumb carnival game? You are soooo voted off if you cost us the win."

"Would you shut up already?" Jasmine stepped up to the meaner twin, towering over her with arms folded and glare pointed. "You're not helping."

Sammy sighed, doing her best to keep the jeers out of mind as she refocused on the game. Cody had taken notice of heckling from her sister, pausing to check on the nicer twin to see if she was ok.

"Geez, do you have to put up with that at home?"

"I thought it would get better after Pahkitew Island since I learned how to stand up for myself more," Sammy said. "But she still treats me like garbage. If anything, she's even more spiteful now. I really don't know why she hates me so much, but living with her is exhausting."

"Yeah, I feel that. It can really take a lot out of you when you can't even relax in your own home." Cody chuckled, tossing one of his darts haphazardly as the conversation rolled on. "Heck, my parents ended up having to get a restraining order against Sierra since she kept breaking into my room to steal my undies."

Sammy chuckled, accidentally missing a dart throw in the process.

"Oh, that wasn't a joke, it really happened." Cody also missed a throw, B in the background now almost done with all of his shots. "It was kinda ugly, she wrote some pretty worrying blog posts afterwards. But it's been nice to have peace of mind at home now, at least. Maybe you should look into moving out and getting away from her?"

"You know, that's not a bad idea." Sammy grinned, thinking over where she could move to with the help of the prize money. "I'll be going to college soon, I was originally thinking about going to a local university but when you put it that way it'll be way more enjoyable for me if I go literally anywhere that Amy isn't."

"And B ends after having earned the maximum amount of points possible," Chris suddenly yelled, snapping Cody and Sammy out of their conversation to see the silent genius exchanging high fives with his team. "Who knew that was even doable? Meanwhile, the other two seem to have taken a break. Might I remind you guys that there IS a time limit?"

"Whoops, guess we let our minds wander." Cody chuckled, rushing through his remaining darts. "Good talk, though!"

"Totally," Sammy agreed, also finishing off her darts. "We could talk more later, if you want. I'm kinda curious to know more about how that restraining order went down."

By the time the two were finished, Cody had popped more balloons than Sammy. Now the teams were once again tied in points, with Team Old School still yet to have placed anything but 2nd in each challenge.

"And for our next challenge, you'll all be whittling a wooden sculpt of your's truly using chainsaws!" Chef walked into frame for added effect, holding up a chainsaw menacingly. "You know, for the extra danger effect."

"Yes!" Scott pumped his fist victoriously. "Looks like waiting till last worked out after all, I can whittle any of these other losers under the table."

As for Team Explosive, they were now down to Dave and Rodney as their remaining contenders before anyone could repeat. Most of the team looked towards the huge farm boy, figuring he could handle a chainsaw with relative ease.

"I've never really been much for art stuff," he said, blushing. "I'd hate to drop the ball for us, especially since there's a lot of farm things that could be next that I WOULD know a lot about."

"Fine, I'll take this one." Dave sighed, looked over the giant blocks of wood being brought out for them to carve. "How hard could it be?"

Very hard, as it turns out. Some flashes forward showed off just how much Dave struggled to handle his chainsaw, much less carve out a good statue of Chris with it. DJ was having a much easier time, having been chosen as his team's first repeater since he was strong and decently versed in art. But any of his credentials had no chance against Scott, who carved through the wood with an almost disturbing amount of glee. Even if he was mostly experienced in whittling with a knife, the way he handled the power tool gave the impression he knew his way around it almost too well.

By the time it was all said and done, the dirt farmer had made by far the best wood sculpt. He had basically recreated the Thinker, but with Chris' head and making sure to give him a pronounced six pack. DJ's sculpt looked like Chris for sure, but it was much less dynamic and detailed as the former's. As for Dave, he had only managed to carve out a glorified stick figure with hair that vaguely resembled Chris'.

"Welp, easy call here, Scott wins and Dave's sucks the most." With another update of the chalkboard, now Team Radioactive was back in the lead. "Seriously. Team Old School, if you want to place anything other than 2nd in these at any point by all means feel free."

Another flash forward took us through two more challenges. First was bull riding, though instead of using a mechanical bull they had to stay on a genuine one. Rodney had to do this challenge due to the rules, but saving him for it proved to work out as the bull actually had a hard time bucking off his massive frame. Leshawna went for her team since she won a challenge similar to this way back in season 1, while Brick wanted to redeem his loss in the pie eating content. He was unsuccessful, as he was the first bucked from the bull. Leshawna and Rodney both held on as much as they could manage, but the ghetto girl was ultimately unable to last as long as the farmer and fell off first. With Rodney's win, things were once again tied.

Next up the players had to quite literally find a needle in a haystack. Though Chris had hidden various other fun surprises in each haystack to keep things interesting. Though a mousetrap in the hay initially threw him off, B ultimately won with ease thanks to a magnet he kept in his jacket helping him retrieve the metal needle. Trent and Shawn combed through their hay with vigor, but Shawn had been sent screaming out of the hay when a zombie mask Chris planted inside freaked him out. By the time he recovered and realized it wasn't a genuine zombie it was too late, as Trent had located his needle to keep his team in not-last place.

"And just like that we're down to the final challenge!" Chris rubbed his hands together. "Chef, how's our tallies looking?"

"Team Radioactive is in the lead," the co-host confirmed. "Old School keeps getting 2nd in everything, so they still in 2nd. Team Explosive is sucking the most, but only by one point. It's literally anyone's game."

"I'm going for us," Sugar yelled in a matter of fact tone to the rest of her team. "County fairs are MY turf, and I won us our first challenge, y'all gotta save the best for last."

"Can't believe I'm saying this, but yeah I think we should go with Sugar," Jasmine agreed. "If she can win this for us we'll at worst avoid last place."

While there was some debate among the other two teams on who should go, the confirmation that it would be an unorthodox challenge with no attachment to farming caused Scott and Beth to step back while Courtney and Lightning stepped up to the plate. Chef threw a block of ice in front of the three contestants, and encased in each was a frozen plain white t shirt.

"Your final challenge is simple," Chris explained. "The first person to unfreeze their shirt and put it on wins. Whoever does it last, loses. And don't worry, the shirts are 4x. They'll fit all of you."

"Sha-easy. First class here we come!" Once their host gave the signal, Lightning began chipping away the ice with punches and kicks. It was more unorthodox since Courtney and Sugar immediately went to using body heat to melt their blocks, but it seemed to be doing steady work as the ice came off. While sitting on her block, Sugar took special notice of Lightning's antics.

 ***** Confessional: Sugar *****

"I ain't never been much for math-e-matics, but them egg heads on my team explained it well enough for me. Winning the challenge would keep us from losing someone, but if them Radioactive fellers don't lose then they still get first class. First class is the only part of the plane fit for me! So I gots to make sure we keep it that way."

 ***** In Centennial Park *****

Sugar grinned mischievously, waiting for Lightning to be looking the other way. Once his back was turned, she reached down and slid forward on her block of ice as fast as she could. She picked up enough speed to bowl over the jock as she passed by, knocking him to the ground before he delivered another curb stomp to his ice block.

"Hey! Watch where you're steering that thing, girl!"

"Whoops," Sugar called back with sarcastic sincerity. "Sorry, must not have seen you there."

Lightning got up and dusted himself off. But right before he could return to chipping away at his ice, Sugar passed by again and knocked him down once more. Now the jock was getting annoyed, rubbing his head after the impact.

"You're doing that on purpose!"

"Get Sugar'd, big boy!" This time Sugar decided to propel herself even faster with, what else, her flatulence. But as she shot forward with her gross wind guiding her, the heat from the fart started melting the ice much quicker than she anticipated. As a result, it had completely melted just as she was about to bowl past Lightning a third time. She came to a stop in front of him, looking up sheepishly as he glared down. "Uh... I was just joking?"

"Wanna see how a star quarterback REALLY knocks somehow over?" Lightning asked menacingly, rolling up his sleeves and getting into position. Sugar yelped, holding up the now free of ice but still stiff t shirt for protection as Lightning jogged forward. He rammed into the t shirt with such force that it sent Sugar flying many feet backwards. "Sha-bam!"

She landed with a rough thud, disorienting her enough to take her out of commission for a few moments. But after she came to, she looked over at the t shirt which was now no longer stiff after the tackle had essentially chipped away the last of the iciness.

"Ha! I meant to do that." Sugar victoriously slid the shirt on, earning cheers from her team.

"Aw crap." Lightning had just managed to get the encasing ice fully chipped away from his own shirt. He held up the stiff clothing to give it a final punch and make it wearable, only to be cut off by the host.

"And that's game!"

Confused, Lightning looked over to see Courtney now also wearing her shirt. She had managed to melt her ice at a nice steady pace in peace while Lightning and Sugar were occupied with each other. And since she seemed to be full of hot air, she melted her ice quicker than Lightning had been able to chip away while distracted.

 ***** Confessional: Lightning *****

"No way. The Lightning lost to that chubby gross girl? Nuh uh, that can't be right. Where was the ref? That totally should have been a red flag." He folded his arms, looking off with a growing sense of disappointment. "Lightning didn't really lose like that... couldn't have."

 ***** In Centennial Park *****

With the tallies updated for one final time, despite all odds the teams were now all tied at 20 points each. Lightning hung his head in shame as he sulked back to his team, while Sugar and Courtney both earned cheers of praise from their own. Chris, amused, chuckled as he looked over the players.

"Well looks like as luck would have it, we have to go to a tie breaker. The winner of this will take first class for their team, and the loser will send someone packing. So you better pick who plays for this one wisely."

"I just got us back in the game, so obviously it should be me," Sugar said proudly to her teammates.

"Hey, no objection here," Shawn agreed. "You're the only one that won us two challenges, as long as it's something you're good at then it may as well be you."

"Heh, there ain't nothing Chris can throw at us from a county fair that Sugar ain't the best at," the country girl boasted, hands on her hips.

"For our tie breaker, we'll have you all competing in a banjo duel!"

Sugar's eyes went wide and she looked on awkwardly. "Uh, except that."

"You don't know how to play the banjo?" Dave asked, surprised. "Out of all the other weird things you know, that's not one of them?"

"I'm a singer! I ain't got no time fer instruments." She glared over at Chris. "Ain't no county fair complete without some country music, why can't I just sing?"

"Do you not remember that you got eliminated last time BECAUSE your singing is so bad? Either way, this isn't a singing episode, so no singing is required." Chris shrugged innocently, he and Chef walking off to prepare the tiebreaker. "Pick yourself a banjo player."

Team Explosive looked around awkwardly, Sugar folding her arms and huffing in defeat. Jasmine scratched her head, actually feeling nervous for her team's chances for once. "Anyone know how to play a banjo, then? Beardo, you're a musician right?"

"Sure, but all I really know outside of by dj booth is the keyboard." He shrugged, pointing a thumb at Sugar. "Otherwise I'm in the same boat as her, I'm more into singing than playing."

"I've got a bit of experience, I guess," Rodney admitted with his hand raised. "My paw is actually really good at the banjo, so he's shown me and my bros how to play it before. I never really kept up with practicing it, though."

"It'll be fine, all you have to do is just don't suck as much as the other two." Amy pushed Rodney along to get him into position. Meanwhile, Team Radioactive had a much easier time choosing who would play for them.

"I got this in the bag, grandpappy taught me how to play when I was like six," Scott bragged, no one really objecting since none of them had any experience with the instrument anyway. "It'll be like taking candy from a baby, easy peezy."

Team Old School was last to choose someone. Many were glancing Trent's way, despite the musician looking very hesitant.

"Come on man, you play the guitar," DJ pointed out. "Ain't a banjo easier, if anything?"

"There's similarities, but all instruments are different." Trent rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. "You'd be surprised at the tiny differences between stringed instruments, I once tried playing a ukulele at a show in Hawaii and long story short I think angered some sort of ancient volcano god."

"He's really never practiced any other instrument outside of his guitar, except the balalaika of all things," Cody added. "Anyone else here that would be a better bet than him?"

"Eh, I'm exquisite with the violin but the banjo is too lowbrow for my tastes," Courtney admitted. Eventually Beth meekly raised her hand just as Trent was about to go join the others.

"Well, I've played a few times before. My mom was super into bluegrass music and has a banjo that I'll fiddle around with from time to time." She tapped her fingers together hesitantly. "But I'm not a real musician like Trent! I wouldn't want to mess this up for us when he'd probably do a better job than me."

Trent leaned down, putting a hand on the nerdy girl's shoulder. "Some experience is better than no experience in my book. If you know the instrument, you're our best bet. Just go out there and try your best, you got this."

Everyone on the team gave Beth their own reassuring smiles and words of encouragement. Eventually she sighed, steeling herself for the challenge ahead. It was highly possible she'd be going home next if they lost this tie breaker. No pressure or anything. "Alright, alright. I can do this. I won't let us lose someone for the third time in a row."

With all teams having their affairs in order, Beth, Scott, and Rodney approached the final platform of the challenge. They were each handed a five string banjo, which Scott took confidently while the other two looked a bit more hesitant. Chef joined the trio on the platform in a ref outfit, holding up an arm.

"Once again, the rules are simple," Chris explained, joining the other contestants in front of the stage to watch the performance. "The three of you will play back and forth on your banjos until a full fledged duel has broken out. Once Chef lowers his arm, the duel officially is underway. You'll all keep going until two of you have stopped. First person to stop loses it for their team. Last one standing earns them first class. Beth, since your team has failed to win a single challenge today thus far, how about you start us out?"

Beth gulped, looking on sheepishly at her competition. Rodney looked determined, but wasn't too threatening otherwise. But Scott? His wicked grin and steely eyed stare was enough to unnerve the nerdier girl. Looking over at her team for support, their cheers of encouragement helped ease the tension. Finally, she took a deep breath and strummed five notes.

Scott nodded, strumming the same notes in a higher key. Rodney went next, playing the notes in the same key Beth had. The cycle continued with everyone playing the notes either higher or lower depending on how the last had played it. Eventually once it got to Rodney again he played a new set of nine notes. Beth responded by playing back the notes in a higher key. Scott played them in the same key Rodney had, and once it got back to the loverboy he played it the way Beth did. Once it was back to her she started a new tune with eight notes that the dirt farmer completed with five notes of his own.

After that Rodney played a new set of nine notes, which Beth then played slightly faster. Scott went even faster when it was his turn, and gradually the trio kept increasing their speed more and more. At some point Scott began playing the notes from the beginning of the song, but now matching the speed the three of them had set. They continued through the song once more, still increasing in speed with their eyes locked on each other. Finally, all three of them were strumming away at once, and Chef lowered his arm to signify they were past the point of no return.

The three of them strummed away, not showing any sign of slowing down. Scott's mischievous gaze prompted Beth to close her eyes while she took deep breaths to keep her playing composed. In the crowd many contestants were tapping their feet and even clapping along to the tune. Sugar and Beardo had even locked arms and started square dancing along. Scott and Rodney had also taken to tapping their feet along with the music, with the former's massive feet causing a bit of shaking every time he tapped.

Rodney looked out into the crowd, proud of how good he was doing. He even noticed that Amy was giving a rare genuine smile, as even she was enjoying the music. Seeing her smile raised Rodney's spirits and filled him with determination... perhaps too much determination. Because as he had let his mind wander, he suddenly lost focus of how much force he was strumming his banjo with. Before he knew it, his massive mitt caused one of the strings to come undone. In a panic, he couldn't stop himself from clinching up. This unfortunately led to him crushing the banjo with his mere grip. He cried out in shock, dropping to his knees in defeat as he realized he had just lost.

Many in the crowd wanted to react to Rodney losing, and by extension Team Explosive, but Chris promptly shushed them as the duel was still ongoing between Beth and Scott. The sound of Rodney's banjo crumbling made the farm girl open her eyes, surprising her as she realized her team was at least safe from elimination now. But if she wanted to pull off the win, now she had to go through Scott. He stepped in front of her, facing her head on as the two continued the duel themselves. While they always continued strumming, they took turns playing louder than the other to play fast versions of the notes from earlier. Both were tapping their feet away as they locked eyes with the other.

"You ain't too shabby, squirt," Scott complimented, genuinely impressed that Beth could keep up with him.

"Thanks," she replied gratefully, peering over at the crowd and suddenly grinning as an idea popped into her head. "Oh, by the way. I know she may be trying to deny it super hard. But Courtney? She's totally still into you."

"What?!" Blindsided, Scott's momentary loss of focus caused him to drop his banjo. "Crap!"

With that, Beth strummed one final set of notes, using extra emphasis on the last one. Team Old School erupted into cheers while Chris confirmed what had happened. "And that's a cool win for Team Old School! Not only has Team Explosive broke their winning streak, looks like they've broken their suckitude streak."

Her teammates hoisted Beth up into the air, cheering while Scott sneered up at her in annoyance.

 ***** Confessional: Beth *****

"Oh my gosh, I actually did it! I guess I do kinda feel bad that I had to play a little dirty to make Scott lose focus, but it's not like he got last so I think it all balances out."

 ***** In Economy Class *****

"Ugh, I can't believe we actually have to sleep in the gross mess," Amy complained as she, Sugar, and Rodney made their way back into the plane. "This sucks, I miss first class already."

"If you're so against sleeping here tonight, we can help prevent that," Jasmine spat as she, Shawn, and Sammy passed the trio. The twins exchanged glares as they walked past.

"As if I'm going to let my lame-o sister last longer than me again." Amy walked off in a huff. "If it goes to a tiebreaker, even better! I get to embarrass and cause her elimination personally."

Rodney watched the exchange in silent shame. He breathed a heavy sigh, looking down in defeat.

 ***** Confessional: Rodney *****

"It sure is nice of Amy to try and cheer me up by acting like anyone else is getting eliminated, but I know better. I really screwed up that tiebreaker, it's my fault that our winning streak is over! I really dropped the ball for my team, how could they ever forgive me?"

 ***** In the Elimination Area *****

Team Explosive filed into the drop zone after casting their votes for the first time, filling up the bleachers and surrounded by a tense silence. Amy and Sammy glared at each other, Rodney still had his head hung in shame, Beardo produced the sound of loud chattering teeth as he chewed his nails nervously. Chris soaked in the anticipation, smirking at their growing misery.

"Dang, Team Explosive, what happened? You went from three wins in a row to here?" He whistled, shaking his head. "Talk about a major fall from grace. Oh well, time to hand out some barf bags! The first one goes to Sugar, since she proved to be surprisingly useful to you all today."

Sugar cheered enthusiastically, opening her mouth as the peanut bag was flung at her. She ate the whole thing with scary precision. And no, she didn't just eat the peanuts. She consumed those AND the bag whole. Others scooted away in disgust.

"Shawn, Jasmine, you two are also safe because obviously."

The couple exchanged a high five, accepting their symbols of immunity graciously.

"Dave and Beardo. Neither of you won your challenge today, but safe you remain." He tossed the two their bags, paying special attention to the beatboxer. "So yes, you can relax Beardo. You aren't the first person on your team voted off this time. Consider yourself officially not Ezekiel and Staci tier."

Beardo held his barf bag up triumphantly, doing a recreation of the Legend of Zelda sound whenever Link obtains an important item. Dave merely rolled his eyes next to him.

As he watched his teammates gradually obtain their safety, Rodney heaved a heavy sigh. "Yeah, it figures I'm one of the ones in danger. I really screwed things up for all of us today."

"Yeah, cool story Rodney," Chris replied, confused as to the point of the outburst in the first place. "But the ceremony is still going so-"

"I mean, if I would have stuck it out we'd be back in first class again! But now look where I got us."

"Rodney, would you please shu-"

"Not only did I let down the team, but I let down my dear Amy," he continued, not even paying attention to Chris. The mean twin looked on in befuddlement.

"Rodney-"

"There's nothing I can do to redeem myself, I deserve to get what's coming to-"

"RODNEY!"

The country boy was finally silenced, startled by the raised voice from Chris. "Would you can it already? You only received one vote, and that's just because you voted for yourself! You're safe."

Chris chucked the barf bag at Rodney in annoyance, with both the farmer and Amy gasping in response.

"You did WHAT?" Amy yelled, her eyes going wide in fear. Sammy looked down at her with a satisfied grin forming.

"Which means it's down to the twins," Chris confirmed, holding up the final barf bag. Amy looked at it in worried panic, while Sammy beamed confidently. "And the last barf bag of the night goes to...

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

... Sam-"

"WAIT!" Rodney shot up, holding out his arms desperately. "This isn't right. Neither of these two deserves to leave over me, how will everyone forgive me for what I did today?"

"We've literally already forgiven you and couldn't care less about it," Jasmine pointed out.

"I consider myself a gentlemen, and it's my duty to do what's right."

"What's right is you sit back down and let this ceremony finish," Shawn shot back, panic growing in his tone as they realized what the farmer was doing.

"I'll never be able to live myself if one of these two go when it should have been me," he kept on, the objections going in one ear and out the other. "I need to redeem myself in the eyes of my team."

"We're telling you right now the thing that will make us most happy is if you sit down and don't do this," Sammy said, practically screaming in an attempt to actually register with the rambling loverboy. "Are you even paying attention to us?"

Rodney marched straight up to Chris, handing back his bag of peanuts. "Chris, for the sake of saving these ladies, I quit the competition!"

"Yeah, sure, whatever." Chris tossed the two bags at Amy and Sammy, the later and her friends all groaning at the series of events. "Whatever gets you to shut up is cool in my books."

Chef pushed a parachute into Rodney's arms before leading him over to the now open hatch. The farmer faced his team one last time with a smile. "I hope you guys can understand my decision."

"We don't," Sammy, Shawn, and Jasmine said in unison with glares pointed his way.

"And Amy, I hope you can go on in the game without me."

"Uh huh, yeah, got it." The mean twin was long past caring once she had got her immunity and was now inspecting her makeup in a hand mirror.

"But before I go, there's one last thing you should know." Rodney took a deep breath, gathering his thoughts so he could deliver the most eloquent of parting words. "This that you, and me with love and singing. Banjos and dancing, with cake that together..."

His incoherent rambling went on, with his teammates all looking around to gauge if anyone could make heads or tails of his gibberish. The dumbfounded looks on everyone's faces made it apparent that no, no one knew what the hell he was going on about.

"But the heart wants what the love eats and-" Before his monologue could continue, the Boot of Shame mercifully came swinging down, knocking the mountain of a man out of the plane.

"Well that was enlightening." Chris chuckled. "Thanks to Rodney McQuitty Pants we're down 4 players with 20 left to go. How will Team Explosive bounce back from their first loss? Can Amy luck her way out of getting eliminated a second time if they do lose again? And which players will stay on route, while another gets the boot? Tune in next time to find out, right here on TOTAL... DRAMA... BATTLE OF THE GENERATIONS!"

 **Voting Confessionals:**

Amy took great joy in stamping her sister's passport multiple times. "It's time for Sammey to know her place once and for all, I'm tired of her thinking she's so big now that she has a bit of backbone. I still haven't forgotten about her going farther than me last time, I'm not letting that happen again!"

"I think I'm really starting to be seen as a true contributing member of the team and not just the weird dude voted off first last time." Beardo grinned for the camera, giving Dave's passport a stamp. "Dave's been kinda killing my vibe, though. I think he might still dislike me. So I kinda gotta vote for him."

Dave looked over Beardo, Rodney, Sammy, and Amy's passports. Eventually he shrugged and stamped the beatboxer's. "Sure, Rodney lost us the tiebreaker, but he won his earlier challenge and that brawn will probably come in handy for us later. Of the others that lost a challenge, Beardo still kinda bugs me. Seriously, those sounds are super annoying."

"I'm almost relieved we lost this time so we can cut your abusive arse out of the competition." Jasmine gave Amy's passport a firm stamp. "I know Sammy is learning how to stand up for herself, but I'm not gonna give you the opportunity to bully her anymore in the first place."

"I'm so ashamed! I know Amy wants me to vote for her sister, but I just can't bring myself to do what isn't right." Sighing in shame, Rodney stamped his own passport. "We all know it's gonna be me, there may as well not be a ceremony."

Sammy repeatedly stamped her twin's passport, even building up a sweat from how intensely she was going at it. She eventually smiled sheepishly at the camera, wiping the sweat from her brow. "Sorry, didn't mean to get carried away. I'm just gonna be really glad to see Amy go. The less she's around to torment me, the more sound I can sleep at night."

"It's not like Amy has even been particularly good in challenges, so we ain't losing anything cutting her." Shawn gave a hard stamp to Amy's passport. "Honestly, she's so nasty that I think even the zombies would pass up eating her. It'd probably give them indigestion."

"I don't really give a rat's tail about Samey, so if Amy wants to get rid of her to break up that goody two shoe alliance going on between her and that weirdo couple I'm all for it." Sugar licked her stamp and pressed it down on Sammy's passport. She then gave it another lick for good measure. "Mmm, that don't taste half bad!"

Votes for Amy: 3 (Jasmine, Sammy, Shawn)

Votes for Sammy: 2 (Amy, Sugar)

Votes for Rodney: 1 (Rodney)

Votes for Dave: 1 (Beardo)

Votes for Beardo: 1 (Dave)

 **After the Boot of Shame:**

Rodney held on tight to the parachute straps as his bulging arms made it feel like they'd rip at any moment. The chute was already deployed, but he still floated down at a slightly faster rate than previous eliminations thanks to the increased girth. "Ahh, I feel like a load was really taken off my conscious by sacrificing myself for the ladies. It was tough to give up my chance for the million dollars, but in the end I know it was the right call. Sure, this may mean I'm the first one from my team to leave, but I went out on my terms! And I can't wait to introduce Amy to my bros back home. They're gonna be so jealous!"

After enough falling, he laded with a mighty thud in the middle of downtown Nashville. Many pedestrians stared at him in confusion while he looked around. "Huh, not really sure where to go now. I wonder how you get to the nearest airport."

"Oh, the airport?" One brunette woman clad in red flannel and blue jeans pointed down one of the roads. "It's just about 30 minutes that way, ya can't miss it."

"Whoa, that's so nice of you to give me directions!" Feeling his heart flutter and an angelic choir sing in his mind, truly Rodney knew this was love. He stared at the woman with a dopey grin, beginning his incoherent babbling session. Confused and a bit frightened, she backed away slowly.

 **Remaining Contestants:**

Team Old School: Beth, Cody, Courtney, DJ, Leshawna, Trent

Team Radioactive: Anne Maria, B, Brick, Dakota, Dawn, Lightning, Scott

Team Explosive: Amy, Beardo, Dave, Jasmine, Sammy, Shawn, Sugar

 **Elimination Order:**

21st: Rodney

22nd: Harold

23rd: Izzy

24th: Staci

 **Author's Note:**

 _Gonna go ahead and tell you guys that I'd really appreciate reading the last few bits of this one since I have some reader feedback questions. That will come after the first two paragraphs. So anyway, hooray for getting out another chapter within under a month! Not too shabby, considering the pace I'm usually known for. You may notice that since the last update I've spiced up the description of the story and changed the pic from that badly cropped picture of the jumbo jet to the Chris aviator symbol. It's all in an attempt to make the story look a bit prettier and more appealing for new readers to give it a look. While of course I appreciate all the favorites, follows, and reviews thus far, I'm still trying to bring in more. I know I'm never going to get this story to Underdog's level of reception, but I'll admit it kinda bums me out knowing there's readers that read Underdogs that are still active but aren't giving this story a look. Oh well, that's life. Also, for some potentially interesting side notes. First of all, I've ported this story over to Archive Of Our Own. This isn't really much of note for anyone already reading it here I reckon, just thought I'd mention that. Also, I've been made aware that this story now has a TV Tropes article! I always enjoyed seeing how Underdog's page was updated after each chapter, so I'm looking forward to seeing how this one grows even if I'm still not that much familiar with the website._

 _Now for some chapter specific notes. So most people reading likely had Rodney predicted as Team Explosive's first boot. And... well, they were right. I'll be honest, I don't think much of the character. He has the Staci problem where he's very gimmicky and if you don't find that gimmick entertaining (I do not) then he's just really a character that doesn't leave you much to work with. He worked well as a temporary ally to Amy, but I really had no reason to keep him around longer if I wasn't going to invest much into him. And I know it might feel cheap to do a quit elimination right after an injury one. This is even the reason I wrote a vote last chapter in the first place, originally Harold was just going to be auto ejected due to injury like Cameron in All Stars. But we'll return to normal eliminations going forward. And for our location we went to Nashville. I would wager literally no one reading predicted that. Why it instead of a bigger name Southern town like New Orleans or Atlanta? At least one of you knows why. Of special note from the county fair challenge was the banjo duel. I tried to make it obvious but for those unfamiliar with it the tune described was based on the famous "Dueling Banjo's," best known from the movie Deliverance. This challenge was actually originally slated to be a singing episode and the non-banjo players would have had to keep singing along until one of the players stopped, but I eventually cut the idea since it would have been long and a bit more complicated since the original music doesn't have lyrics. I'll continue doing hints for next locations going forward, or at least saying what continent. For example, next chapter will take place in Africa._

 _And now two things I'm looking towards reader feedback for. First, I'm going to replace the poll on my profile with a new one asking what characters you'd like to see as guests on the peanut gallery during Aftermath 3 and maybe 4. I already have the guests planned for Aftermath 1 and 2 so those characters (plus Ezekiel) won't be on the poll, but I'd like to go ahead and get a feel for what characters people would like to see so I can plan out the aftermaths more ahead of time. Some characters I won't use because I have plans for some of them as cameos like Ezekiel was used, but yeah go vote on that. I'm making it so you can select up to five characters on the poll. As for the other thing, this is regarding much more in the future. Namely, the comp fic I'm planning after this one and what will likely be my last fic in general, Revenge of the Rejects. So originally I was planning to write that story in the form of a 26 episode like season, much like what I'm doing with this story. The cast was going to be as follows:_

Ezekiel, Eva, Noah, Tyler, Katie, Sadie, Justin, Trent, Staci, B, Dakota, Brick, Dawn, Anne Maria, Beardo, Leonard, Amy, Sammy, Rodney, Ella, Max, Scarlett.

 _But recently I've begun to really sour on the idea of another full season. BOTG isn't even a 4th of the way done yet, so it would take a long time getting not only past BOTG but all the way through ROTR if it's 26 episodes long. So I decided to make the hard decision to make it instead a 13 episode long season akin to ROTI/AS/PI. However, I've decided to spice things up by, instead of having aftermath chapters, doing rest day chapters where no competition is going on. That way the characters have more time to flesh out without it feeling purely like a comp fic. So with those added in it would probably be closer to 17 or 18 chapters. As for the audience feedback I'm looking for? Well due to shortening the season, I've obviously had to do major cast cuts. Here is my current revised cast:_

Ezekiel, Eva, Tyler, Katie, Sadie, Justin, Staci, B/Brick, Dawn, Anne Maria, Beardo, Leonard, Topher, Ella

 _Topher's name may stand out in particular since he wasn't listed in the original cast, but I was going to debut him halfway through the story so he was also always part of ROTR. So I went from a 23 person cast when you factor in Topher, to a now 14 person cast. I'm going to explain my reasoning for the current cuts and choices, but long story short I'd like to hear feedback on my choices and who others might think works better. So feel free to leave that in your review if you're interested in reading Revenge of the Rejects. Anyway, on to my reasoning for where it's at now._

 _Max, Scarlett, and Trent were the first three cuts since they're only detestably rejects in the first place. Trent was a major player in TDI, he went out of focus afterwards but wasn't as big a reject as the others. Meanwhile Max and Scarlett merge in their one season, and full disclosure Scarlett was only on the cast to eat the first elimination so the actual underdogs could last longer. Max was going to stick around a while and be fun comedy relief, but ultimately I felt he needed to go. Amy and Sammy were also cut because they come as a pair and eat up two whole slots. I'm already exploring their storyline here in this story, so I didn't feel the need to do it a second time in ROTR. Eventually I came to the conclusion of needing 4 people from gens 2 and 3, and 6 for gen 1, so I looked between cutting Leonard or Rodney. Ultimately, since Rodney competed here and Leonard didn't, I went with the wizard for a chance to write him._

 _Noah is the cut that would likely be the most controversial for obvious reasons. People love him. You can't go wrong with some Noah in your story. But similar to the first three I mentioned, Noah's reject status is debatable after Ridonculous Race. He had a huge focus there and there's not a whole lot I could do with him since he's in a committed relationship and Owen wouldn't be around for their hi-jinks. In my original plan for the story he would have been part of a couple (the original plan was him and Dawn), but that was pre-RR. With Emma in the picture, I felt he may as well be cut. And finally Dakota was cut since once again I'm exploring using her here and wouldn't do much of anything differently with ROTR Dakota._

 _Now on to the ones I kept. B/Brick stands out the most because I'm most undecided on which of them to keep and which to cut. Brick has more you can do with him and is funnier, but B is the bigger underdog as the second boot from ROTI. It's a tossup. Ezekiel, Staci, and Beardo I viewed as must haves because they're the three 1st boot wonders. The biggest rejects of all. Eva, Katie, and Sadie were all rejects in TDI and none of them have competed since that season. It only felt fitting to have them along. Tyler is in universe arguably the biggest reject when it comes to popularity, and Justin is the biggest reject villain since Courtney stole his role from under his nose. Dawn and Anne Maria are self explanatory, pre merge boots from ROTI, and the same is true for Topher and Ella with TDPI. And as I said, I considered Rodney from the remaining PI fodder, but decided to go with Leonard for the sake of variety._

 _So yeah, there's my reasoning for my shortened cast picks. I'll be interested to see what you guys may think works or doesn't work. I'll leave you on that and will see you guys next time with a hopefully much shorter author's note on hand._


End file.
